Relationship of squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix uteri to squamous cell carcinoma of the penis.Among Puerto Rican women married to men with penile carcinoma

Abstract

This study was conducted to seek the frequency in Puerto Rico of squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix among wives of 889 men with the diagnosis of epidermoid carcinoma of the penis, and the sequence and intervals between the 2 diagnoses in comparison with a matched group. The wives of the penile carcinoma group developed 8 cases of epidermoid carcinoma of the cervix uteri in contrast with none among the control wives. Carcinomas of the cervix were diagnosed later and in earlier stage than the penile carcinomas.

Mortality of wives of men dying with cancer of the penis

“…Our results confirm the observation of Martinez (1969) that the wives of men * Us9 of the same method to adjust the estimate of the expected number of deaths from all causes increases the expected number from 366-8 to 400 9 (Table II) (Wolbarst, 1932). Circumcision later in infancy or in childhood also appears to protect against this cancer (Wolbarst, 1932) and in East Africa, where cancer of the penis is very common among certain tribes, much of the variation in rates for cancer of the penis can be explained by differences in the practice of circumcision among the various tribes.…”

“…Although there have been suggestions that some male and female genital tumours may share a common aetiology, epidemiological studies directly relevant to this hypothesis have been few. A striking finding was that of Martinez (1969) in Puerto Rico who found 8 cases of CCU among wives of men with penis cancer whereas only about 1 2 were expected. We considered that it would be worth while to try to verify this observation in England and Wales, where the incidence of penis cancer is about oneseventh of that in Puerto Rico (JARC, 1976 Women who entered the armed forces or who emigrated were excluded from the study from their date of entry into the Services or of emigration, because information on subsequent deaths may have been biased.…”

Some aspects of the role of viruses in cancer

“…Serum from tumour-bearing hamsters has been reported to contain HSV neutralizing antibody (Rapp and Westmoreland, 1976); however, no antibody was found in sera from hamsters inoculated with cloned cell lines (Boyd, 1975;Skinner, 1976 (Kessler, 1976). In addition, the incidence is relatively high among women whose husbands have penile cancer (Martinez, 1969), among prostitutes and in association with venereal diseases (Rojel, 1953) and in the wives of men whose first wives died of carcinoma of the cervix (Kessler, 1976). These findings have been interpreted as signifying that carcinoma of the cervix is caused by a venereallytransmitted factor; indeed, the evidence is held to point to the existence of high-risk males who are most likely to transmit the agent of the disease (Singer, Reid and Coppleson, 1975;Kessler, 1976).…”

The male role in cervical cancer

“…One study reported that subsequent wives of husbands whose previous wife developed cervical cancer had an increased risk of cervical neoplasia, 19 and several studies have shown that wives of men with cancer of the penis have a higher incidence and mortality rates of cervical cancer. [20][21][22] Studies showing geographic clustering of cervical and penile cancers, [23][24][25] and studies showing strong correlation between incidence rates of male and female genital cancers, 22,26 provided further ecological support on the importance of men in the natural history of cervical cancer.…”