tip of penis sore after finishing IMRT

I did not have this experience with my IMRT, but if I had, I would call my RO and ask if it's a thing.

@mjp0512 Definitely following up on this asap. Thanks!

@melvinw
I had 30 rounds of proton radiation in 2023. In 2024 I was having some sores on my penis but that was not odd as I swim and do water aerobics and ride my bike back home and developed rash and sores from the rubbing.

However I stopped bike riding as caught COVID for first time and there was a sore on top of penis that did not go away. Scheduled appointment with dermatologist and they did biopsy. Biopsy came back SCC. Had MOHS surgery on it.

I was told the most likely cause was HPV virus. Was told almost everyone has the virus but immune system usually keeps it dormant. I did not think about it much then another poster posted a cancer and said his doctor said could come from reduce immune system from radiation.

I was told that my immune system could be affected during radiation as body was fighting the radiation damage and trying to heal. Now this is just my thoughts and think my SCC could have been caused my immune system out of whack by radiation.

You mentioned a sore on penis and that is why I posted this. I have no idea if you developed SCC there but wanted to share you my experience with developing a sore on penis and what it turned out to be.

I see from your post you are seeing a dermatologist so you should be able to determine if needs biopsy. I was told by my dermatologist and dermatologist surgeon that SCCs are more common to developed in sores versus BCC which is sun damaged but both have a direct correlation to sun damage.

So you can see why I asked what the heck my penis has never been in sun. And then was told about HPV and it direct association with SCC causes in areas like this. I just had a biopsy reveal I have another SCC behind my right elbow and on top of my left hand.

Hope yours is not SCC and has an easy fixed but thought I would pass on my recent experience with this and what more sore (very small) turned out to be and association with HPV and immune system.

That’s interesting because - even though photon radiation does “scatter” - the radiation shouldn’t have been anywhere near there (unless by accident).

(I had 28 sessions of proton radiation treatments during April-May 2021); never experienced that. Never heard of anyone else having that experience.)

Was the recurrent prostate cancer anywhere near there? Did the PSMA PET scan show any uptake there?

In Dr. Kwon’s presentation about recurrence (around timestamp of 12:03 at https://youtu.be/Q2joD360_pI), he talks about a patient who had a recurrent prostate cancer that had metastasized as a solitary lesion at the “very tip of his penis.”

There’s also something called penile cancer. (But, that diagnosis is something like one-in-a-million here in the U.S.)

On the other hand, it may be something totally benign.

Yes, if it were me I would certainly get that checked ASAP.

@brianjarvis Only the palpable nodule in my prostate bed lit up on the PSMA PET scan. No indication of anything down below.

The medical literature I have has stated that PCa metastasis as penile cancer is “extremely rare”.
Also, most penile cancers are a type of skin cancer.

I’ll check out Kwon's video. Thanks for that reference.

Hope to get this sorted in the next week or so, starting tomorrow with my PCP.

@jc76 Thank you, that is very good information, and I’m glad to hear your SCC was treatable.

@brianjarvis
The relationship of having radiation and SCC, or sores on penis was posted as coming from the radiation.

My dermatologist stated that radiation affects your immune system as you body fights the damage. You immune system keeps virus dormant and when it is affected viruses can come back up.

Thus my dermatologist believed my SCC on my penis was because of previous HPV infection. I had developed rash sores from wet bathing suit rubbing my penis on my long ride home with wet bathing suit. I did not know I had but was told almost every single adult has but immune system keeps dormant.

Thus if your immune system is affect this virus can reappear and has been known to cause cancer in sores. I had a rubbing sore from wet bathing suit that did not heal and was diagnosed as SCC and the cause most likely HPV virus that is known to cause SCCs.

On the posters post he was having issues with tip. That is a location that can rub and developed sores. So I mentioned the HPV and possible SCC like I had to check into.

@brianjarvis
Did not imply the proton or photon radiation caused the sore on posters penis. It was a possible correlation with having radiation treatments affecting your immune system and possible virus that were dormant coming back.

SCC is common to developed from sores and connected to HPV virus. So it is the radiation affecting your immune system not damage to your penis.

@jc76 Yes, anything is possible. I just found it interesting that after my 13-1/2 years on this prostate cancer journey, yours is the first I’ve ever heard whose immune system was affected such that it caused a dormant virus to come back.

That’s good information to know should it ever happen.

@brianjarvis
What I found out from my medical doctors was radiation can lower you immune system as your body fights off the damage to radiation. I can't remember but a poster on MCC mentioned the immune system when his doctor associated his lowered immune system could be from radiation.

The post I did was about a sore on a poster's penis that would not heal. I had the same thing but like I posted I get them all the time as I bike to/from my home to swim and exercise in pool and found I would developed rash, sore from the wet bathing suit rubbing on my testicles and penis.

Problem was I had a test that prevented me from bike riding and I noticed the sore (like the poster mentioned) was not healing and I was not aggravating it with wet bathing suit bike riding.

So I went to dermatologist who did biopsy and came back SCC. I was told SCC can develop out of sores and most likely indicates a recurrence of HPV caused SCC. Totally unaware of that medical information.

Then discussion of relationship of radiation and immune system. My R/O, PCP mentioned to me common side affect of radiation is fatigue. Fatigue will cause your immune system problems.

So the intent of my post was to inform the other poster to check and see if his sore was SCC since would not heal and my experience with same finding out my sore was SCC and most likely caused by HPV which immune system usually keeps dormant.

The poster is seeing a dermatologist. When I had my in office visit the dermatologist was a female. Talk about embarrassing but they told me they have seen and done biopsies on every parts of the body and not uncommon at all to do biopsies on penis.