Abstract

Effect of Age, Geographical Affiliation and Environmental Factors on the Development of Prostate Cancer among Sudanese Patients

Gorish BMT, Ournasseir MEH and Shammat IM

Background: Prostate cancer (PCa) is a biologically homogeneous tumor that is one of the leading causes of cancer deaths in men. The reasons behind PCa are not fully understood but are likely to occur due to a range of factors such as aging, family history, and dietary factors. This study aimed at determining the relationship between age, geographical affiliation, environmental factors, and PCa development.

Methods: All patients (55 cases with PCa and 55 control with BPH) were referred to central hospitals in Khartoum. We used an interviewer-administered questionnaire to ask participants about their demographic, socioeconomic, and geographical afflation, cadmium contact, alcohol consumption, as well as Clinical data including duration of disease, grade and family history of PCa. Statistical analysis was performed by using SPSS version 20 to judge the existence of the correlation.

Results: The average age for cases was higher than controls average. However, the difference was insignificant. Population from Central Sudan were the most affected group with PCa followed by Northern, Southern, Western and Eastern. Our result has shown that cases were observed to have cadmium contact much more frequently than controls with p-value of 0.031 and odd ratio of 3.55. While, alcohol consumption, working in a tire plant, a diet high in fat, working in farmer and family history of cancer appeared to have an insignificant role in prostate cancer development among Sudanese patients with p-value of 0.32, 0.50,1.0, 0.43, 0.24 respectively.

Conclusion: Among the various environmental factors discussed in this study, only cadmium contact has a consistent and strong effect as a risk factor for prostate cancer. While other factors are often observed among the cases group but, the correlation is still unclear. Further studies with the inclusion of more sample size are recommended in the future to get a more generalized result.