Clinical and Histopathological Profile of Patients with Prostate Cancer in Kampala

ABSTRACT

Background: Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most

prevalent malignancy among adult men with

marked variation in mortality rate across regions

globally. Uganda has the highest incidence of

prostate cancer in East Africa. This study explored

the spectrum of clinical and histopathological

profile of patients diagnosed with PCa in Uganda

between 2012 and 2014 at the Department of

pathology, Makerere College of Health Sciences

(MakCHS).

Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional

study aimed at providing an update of the spectrum

of clinical and histopathological profile of patients

with PC in Uganda. The study involved 211 cases

diagnosed at the department of pathology between

2012 and 2014. After obtaining ethical clearance to

carry out the study from the school of biomedical

science; laboratory requisition forms collected,

were used to extract the biodata information and

also selection of the cases. Having selected the cases

by using non-probability approach, tissue blocks

were retrieved from the archive of the laboratory,

sectioned and stained with haemtoxylin and eosin

stains and cover-slipped before being examined by

the investigator. Data generated were entered in the

data collection form and analysis for frequency and

descriptive statistics was done using SPSS version

16.0.

Results: The study involved 211 patients with

prostate cancer. The median age at diagnosis was 70

years and most of them, 82.9% had total PSA³

greater than 4.0ng/ml. Incomplete voiding of urine

was the most common clinical feature which

accounted for 43.6% and more than half, 61.2% of

the patients had advanced disease. Almost half of the

patients (44.6%) had Gleason score ³8 and 47.9% of

all the cases were in high risk group.

Conclusions: Majority of patients with PCa in

Uganda have raised pre-treatment total PSA and

most of them are diagnosed with advanced disease.

They also have high parameters of biologically

aggressive prostate cancer such as Gleason score,

lymphovascular invasion, perineural invasion and

positive surgical margins.