DESCRIPTIVE CASE SERIES OF PATIENTS PRESENTING WITH CANCER OF THE PROSTATE AND THEIR MANAGEMENT AT KENYATTA NATIONAL HOSPITAL, NAIROBI

Abstract

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.