Urological Cancers in Asir Region

Abstract

Due to the lack of a national cancer registry in Saudi Arabia, information on the incidence and prevalence of various cancers is, at present, unavailable [1]. However, reports from various hospital-based studies [2] such as ARAMCO, and Asir [3] shed some light on the magnitude of the problem. We have retained an oncology registry in which all urinary neoplasms have been entered in the Department of Urology in Asir Central Hospital, Abha, during the past five years. We have analyzed the first 100 patients in an attempt to study the crude relative frequency and rank order. The registry represents the majority of patients with urological cancers in this region, although several patients were referred to other referral centers. Since all referring urologists are aware of the registry, most patients they see are referred to this hospital for cancer care with the size representative of the cancer pattern. All bladder, prostate, and renal cancers have been histologically confirmed and staged according to TNM classification. Bladder cancers were divided into bilharzial and non-bilharzial according to the presence of histological stigmata of bilharzial pathology. Prostate specimens were obtained by either transurethral resection or perineal/transrectal needle biopsies. The mean age and tumor stage at presentation were compared in the commonly seen urological malignancies.