Virtually all penile carcinomas are of squamous cell origin and include the following subtypes:

• Verrucous carcinoma.[1]
• Warty carcinoma (verruciform).[2]
• Basaloid carcinoma.[3]

Although they are less common subtypes, warty carcinoma and basaloid carcinoma appear to be more highly associated with human papillomaviruses (HPV), particularly HPV 16, than typical squamous cell carcinoma or verrucous carcinoma of the penis.[3,4,5]

In addition, neuroendocrine carcinomas can also be seen.[6]

References:

1. Schwartz RA: Verrucous carcinoma of the skin and mucosa. J Am Acad Dermatol 32 (1): 1-21; quiz 22-4, 1995.
2. Bezerra AL, Lopes A, Landman G, et al.: Clinicopathologic features and human papillomavirus dna prevalence of warty and squamous cell carcinoma of the penis. Am J Surg Pathol 25 (5): 673-8, 2001.
3. Cubilla AL, Reuter VE, Gregoire L, et al.: Basaloid squamous cell carcinoma: a distinctive human papilloma virus-related penile neoplasm: a report of 20 cases. Am J Surg Pathol 22 (6): 755-61, 1998.
4. Gregoire L, Cubilla AL, Reuter VE, et al.: Preferential association of human papillomavirus with high-grade histologic variants of penile-invasive squamous cell carcinoma. J Natl Cancer Inst 87 (22): 1705-9, 1995.
5. Rubin MA, Kleter B, Zhou M, et al.: Detection and typing of human papillomavirus DNA in penile carcinoma: evidence for multiple independent pathways of penile carcinogenesis. Am J Pathol 159 (4): 1211-8, 2001.
6. Vadmal MS, Steckel J, Teichberg S, et al.: Primary neuroendocrine carcinoma of the penile urethra. J Urol 157 (3): 956-7, 1997.