Correlation of serum PSA and Gleason score in Nigerian men with prostate cancer

Prostate cancer is an important cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. While the predisposing factors are not fully understood, African descent is an important risk factor, and prostate cancer has become the number-one cancer in Nigerian men. This was a retrospective study of the correlation between serum prostate specific antigen [PSA] and Gleason grade and score in patients of Nigerian descent. The University College Hospital [UCH] Ibadan Cancer Registry was used to identify and quantify the incidence of prostate cancers occurring between 1998 and 2000. The histological slides of appropriate cases were reviewed to confi rm the Gleason grade and score. The serum PSA values were retrieved from the patients' case notes and laboratory files. The data obtained were subjected to statistical analysis to look for associations and correlations. The study included 67 men with prostate adenocarcinoma and PSA measurements who were diagnosed and treated at the UCH Ibadan between January 1998 and December 2000. There was a positive correlation between serum PSA and Gleason grade, as well as between serum PSA and Gleason score in our cohort of Nigerian African men with prostate cancer. PSA levels were significantly lower in patients with stage B disease than in patients with stage D disease. Serum PSA is signifi cantly higher in metastatic than in localized disease. Further studies are necessary to determine biomarkers that complement serum PSA and the Gleason grading system in the prognostication of prostate cancer in African patients

audit of 149 consecutive breast biopsies in Ibadan, Nigeria

To study the outcomes of one hundred and forty nine consecutive breast biopsies in both male and female patients in one arm of the general surgery division of the department of surgery, university college hospital Ibadan. A retrospective study of the case files and histopathology reports of 149 patients who had biopsies of the breast from May 1996 to September 2004. The study showed that below the age of 30 years, there was no malignancy detected in 85 breast biopsies, however as the age increased it was seen that less than one out of four biopsies were malignant when the patients were aged between 31 and 40 years, rising to one out of four biopsies for the 41-50 and 51-60 age-groups. The 61-70 yielded roughly one out of three whilst two out of three breast biopsies were malignant in the 71-80 age-groups. Majority of breast lumps are benign and women have a probability of one chance in 10 that their biopsies may be malignant. However under 30 years this is unlikely. Above the age of 40 years the chance of malignancy rises to a one in four which will strongly support screening methods for women above 40 years. For record purposes, fibroadenoma is still the most common breast lesion in women under 30 years and invasive ductal carcinoma is the most common histopathological type of breast cancer in Ibadan, Nigeria