Renal cancer epidemiologic and pathologic characteristics in Lebanon: A ten years' experience in a tertiary center.

Abstract

Background: BKidney cancer accounts for 5% of all malignant tumors in men. Worldwide, 90% of kidney malignancies are renal cell carcinomas, while only less than 10% are transitional cell carcinomas. To our knowledge, only one small study conducted in Lebanon on 124 cases found that more than 20% of the renal cancers were of urothelial pathology, larger epidemiological studies are warranted.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 1708 renal tissues including 499 renal malignant tumors from the data collected at the pathology department in Hotel-Dieu de France University hospital, a Lebanese tertiary hospital, over a ten-year period going from 2008 to 2018, based on the WHO classification of 2016.

Results: Among 499 renal cancer patients, the mean age was 60.3 years with a median of 62 [18-90], with 68% being men and 32% women. The three most common histology types were the conventional renal cell carcinoma in only 46.7%, followed by the urothelial carcinoma in 18.2%, then the papillary renal cell carcinoma in 15.5%.

Conclusion: Compared to the literature, similar age average and sex ratio were found, however, the Lebanese population seems to have a specific histologic pattern of distribution such as a high percentage of transitional cell type and a relatively low percentage of clear cell carcinoma.