Is cancer of the prostate rare in tropical (black) Africa? Case series from the Centre Hospitalier et Universitaire and the Hospital General de Yaounde from 1986 to 1990.

The objective of this study was to determine the crude incidence of cancer of the prostate in a hospital-based population. Patients presenting at urological clinics were studied using a standard proforma. The settings included the urological outpatient clinics and hospital wards of the University Hospital Center (CHU) and the Yaounde General Hospital (HGY)--Institutions of the University of Yaounde I, Faculty of medicine and biological sciences, Centre Pasteur de Yaounde. Included were 447 new male patients over age 40, observed over a five-year period. All patients underwent standard clinical evaluation, laboratory and radiological studies. Patients with abnormal prostates, enlarged lymph nodes, metastatic bony lesions had tissue removed for histology. Seventy-two patients with abnormal prostates had them biopsied. Five had excisional biopsy of enlarged supraclavicular lymph nodes in addition to abnormal prostates. Six patients with bony lesions, elevated prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP) and prostate specific antigen (PSA) did not have tissue diagnosis. Thirty-three patients were treated with orchidectomy and fefosterol (ST-52) and 12 with ST-52 only. Seventy-eight out of 447 patients had abnormal clinical findings. 39 of these had a tissue diagnosis of adenocarcinoma of the prostate. Six others with probable cancer of the prostate did not have a tissue diagnosis. All but one patient with stage C disease had stage D disease. The calculated age-adjusted incidence of cancer of the prostate is 93.8 cases per 100,000. Cancer of the prostate is common in the blacks of Cameroon and its incidence is increasing annually.