Low educational level, low disposable income, being divorced or never married, and living in a single-person household all increase the risk of advanced stage penile cancer, according to new research.

The findings come from a population-based register study including men in Sweden diagnosed with penile cancer between 2000 and 2012 (1676 men) and randomly chosen controls (9872 men). There was no association between socioeconomic status and cancer-related deaths, indicating that management does not differ between social groups.

The findings are published in BJU International.

Article: Socioeconomic factors and penile cancer risk and mortality; a population-based study, Christian Torbrand, Annette Wigertz, Linda Drevin, Yasin Folkvaljon, Mats Lambe, Ulf Håkansson and Peter Kirrander, BJU International, doi: 10.1111/bju.13534, published online 4 July 2016.