Urological Malignancies in Port Harcourt; Nigeria: a 14-Year Review

ABSTRACT

Background: Urological malignancies are complex; covering the urinary system in both sexes and the genital system of males. They are common in this setting and posing a lot of problems to the patients. In most cases; the disease terminates in the death of the patient. Aim: To study the pattern and frequency of urological malignancies. Methods: All the urological tissues histologically diagnosed as malignant at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital; Port Harcourt; Nigeria between 1990 and 2003 were retrospectively studied. Variables such as the age and sex of the patients; anatomical site of the cancer; laterality of the tumours; clinical presentation and the histological types were obtained from the theatre operation register; patient's case notes; histology request forms; reports and autopsy reports. Results: There were 270 histologically confirmed urological malignancies during the period under review. This accounted for 11.3of the total malignancies and affected all ages of both sexes with a male to female ratio of 9.81 . The 70 years and above age group were most affected [103(38.1)] and carcinoma of the prostate was the most frequent [189(70.0)]. Adenocarcinoma of the prostate gland was the leading histological variant [187(64.0)] and urinary outflow obstruction was the most common clinical presentation [62(23.0)]. Conclusion: Urological malignancies are fairly common in this environment and carcinoma of the prostate gland is dominating