Adult Kidney Cancer in Mauritania: Clinical and Therapeutic Aspects

Introduction: since its creation, our urology department has taken care of tumor pathologies in particular kidney cancer in adults; our goal is to study the clinical and therapeutic epidemiological profiles of adult kidney cancer in Mauritania. Materials and Methods: We carried out a retrospective study over a period of six years, from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2017, including all cases of adult kidney cancer registered in the urology-andrology departments of the Cheikh Zayed Hospital and Pathological Anatomy of the National Hospital of Nouakchott (Mauritania). Results: we collected 50 cases of kidney cancer. The average annual incidence was 8.3 cases. The average age of the patients was 52.98 years with extremes of 18 and 84 years. There was a female predominance (52%) or 29 women for 21 men. Lumbar pain was the most frequent clinical expression, more than half of the patients had symptoms over a period of at least 12 months before the first consultation. The left kidney was the most frequently affected. The right localization was demonstrated in 23 patients, the extension assessment was made with thoraco-abdomino-pelvic CT in 40 patients. Twelve patients had a tumor localized in the kidney. The extension assessment had made it possible to objectify the existence of metastases in 17 of our patients (37%). The preferred locations of these metastases were pulmonary and hepatic. Surgical intervention was performed in 44 patients (88%), of whom 36 underwent radical nephrectomy (72%), and two patients underwent partial nephrectomy (4.5%). Surgical abstention was decided from the outset in 6 patients (13.6%). None of our patients had received treatment with anti-angiogenics. The histological type most observed in our patients was renal cell carcinoma, observed in 34 patients, or 77.72%. At the time of the study, more than a third of the patients had died. The mortality rate in our series had reached 24%. A specific survival rate could not be assessed due to lack of information in the files and significant numbers of patients lost to follow-up at the time of the study. Conclusion: adult kidney cancer in Mauritania is characterized by its low incidence, its occurrence in a relatively young population, its female predominance, its often late diagnosis at locally advanced and metastatic stages, and the treatment is the most often surgical.