Renal Cell Carcinomas in Ibadan; A Further Histopathological Study

Abstract

Background:Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most lethal

urological cancer accounting for about 2% of all cancer

deaths worldwide. It is relatively rare in Africans but

contributes to significant morbidity and mortality from

cancers of the urogenital tract. A previous study of RCC

in Ibadan is succeeded by this current review

Materials and Methods: The bio-data of all the patients

with histologically diagnosed renal cell carcinoma was

obtained from the surgical daybook of the Department of

Pathology, UCH, Ibadan within the study period (January

2007 to December 2016). H&E stained tissue slides of all

cases of renal cell carcinomas seen in the surgical daybook

were reviewed for confirmation of the histological diagnosis

of renal cell carcinoma. The morphological patterns and

Fuhrman grading were determined for all the cases of clear

cell and papillary renal cell carcinomas while a novel tumour

grading adapted for chromophobe renal cell carcinomas

was used to grade all 3 cases of Chromophobe RCC seen

in this study. Frequency statistics and chi-square were

applied on data to determine proportions and associations

using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS)

version 23.

Results: A total of 48 cases of renal cell carcinomas were

seen within the study period that met the inclusion criteria

for the study. Clear cell RCC was the commonest variant

and comprised 30 cases (62.5%) followed by 14 cases of

papillary RCC (29.17%) while 3 cases of Chromophobe

renal cell carcinoma was seen comprising 6.25%. Only one

unclassified variant was seen making up 2.08%. The age

range of the patients was between 3 to 76 years with an

average age of 44.17years. The male to female ratio was

1:1.3. Grade 2 nuclei were predominant (43.75%) while

Grade 4 nuclei had the lowest frequency (6.25%). The

association between the morphological patterns and the

nuclear grading was however not statistically significant.

Conclusion: This study demonstrated that the clear cell

variant of RCC was the commonest morphological pattern

seen in our environment with most of our cohort having

low grade nuclei which appears different from the findings

of the previous study but correlates well with the global

trends in RCC. The nuclear grading as prognostic mark

also appears favourable. A further study of the molecular

genetics of this cancer will help to determine whether this

cancer is mainly familial or sporad

er