Descriptive case series of patients presenting with cancer of the prostate and their management at Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi

Abstract

Objective: To study clinical prostate cancer in this locality with particular interest in incidence, clinical presentation and treatment. Design: A descriptive prospective study. Setting Kenyatta National Referral and Teaching Hospital affiliated to College of Health Sciences of the University of Nairobi between November 1998 and October 1999. Patients Sixty five patients with clinical prostate cancer were included in the study. Results: Age was reliably confirmed in 64 out of the 65 patients. 87.5% of the patients were aged over 61 years with a peak incidence in the 66-70 year age group and a mean age of 67 years. Crude hospital incidence of 76.5 patients per 100,000 patients and a crude hospital death rate of 5.8 patients per 100,000 patients is reported. The majority of patients (87.5%) presented late with advanced disease stages III(C) and IV(D) prostate cancer. Conclusion The crude hospital incidence of cancer of the prostate is on the increase in this locality with a finding of 76.5 per hundred thousand patients, higher than that reported by earlier researchers in this locality and elsewhere. This study suggests that prostate cancer incidence and the magnitude of risk in our locality must have been grossly underestimated in the past. The prostate cancer rate in Kenyans may be as great as noted in black men in the United States, Jamaica, Nigeria and Cameroon which may suggest some common enhancing genetic predisposition. There is need to further investigate this phenomenon. Cancer of the prostate in this locality presents late with clinically advanced disease.