Epidemiological and Histopathological Characteristics of Renal Cell Carcinoma in Somalia

There is a scarcity of studies regarding renal cell carcinoma (RCC) reported from Sub-Saharan Africa.

The present study is the first report evaluating the prevalence and clinical and histopathological features of RCC at a tertiary hospital in Somalia.

This retrospective study included 84 patients with histologically confirmed RCC over 5-years. The investigated parameters were sociodemographic features, radiological and histopathological characteristics, mortality, and overall 5-year survival rate.

The prevalence of RCC in our study was 0.7%. The mean age of the patients was 53.74±5.5 years, 67.9% were male, and 32.1% were female, with a 2:1 male-to-female ratio. The mean tumor size was 6.38±2.4 cm. Clear cell RCC was the most common histological type in 67.8%, followed by papillary RCC (15.6%), unclassified RCC (9.5%), and chromophobe RCC was the least common in 7.1% of the cases. About one-third of the case had locally advanced RCC with positive nodal involvement, 26.2% of the patients had metastatic disease, and a further 6% progressed to metastatic cancer despite surgical resection. Eight percent of our cases returned with local recurrence. The mortality rate was 37.2%. More than eighty percent of females had a low-stage and a low-grade RCC, while males held higher stages and higher grades RCC in 37% and 63%, respectively (p<0.001). Smokers were male-only, while obesity was common in female patients (p=0.02).

The study findings showed a satisfactory outcome, 71.4% of our patients presented with localized RCC, the five-year survival rate of the patients was 62.8%, and the mortality rate was substantially higher for patients with a higher stage, a higher grade tumor, and metastatic disease at the time of diagnosis.