Audit of prostatic diseases diagnosed from Tru-Cut biopsies in Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, Nnewi, using the P63 immunohistochemical marker

Background: There is growing literature on the burden of prostatic lesions: both benign and malignant among men of West African ancestry. There are also some studies on the prostate in Anambra State and South-East Nigeria, but these are mainly on patterns and prevalence, without the use of immunohistochemistry. Aims and Objectives: The aim of this study is to determine the histological pattern of prostatic diseases diagnosed from Tru-Cut biopsies in Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital (NAUTH), Nnewi, South-East Nigeria, using the p63 immunohistochemical marker. This will be a pioneer study in both the state and the geopolitical zone. Materials and Methods: This is a 2-year (January 2019 to December 2020) retrospective study of the immunohistochemical expression of p63 on the haematoxylin and eosin-diagnosed Tru-Cut biopsies of the prostate in the archives of the histopathology laboratory in NAUTH, Nnewi. A Purposive sampling method was used with a sample size of 151. Sections were made from the blocks, reviewed and stained using the p63 immunohistochemical marker. Results: There were 191 cases of prostate diseases histologically diagnosed, of which 151 met the inclusion criteria for the study. Of the 151 cases, 97 (64.2%) were diagnosed as benign and 54 (35.8%) were diagnosed as malignant. Following p63 immunohistochemistry, 97 cases were accurately diagnosed as benign and 54 cases accurately diagnosed as malignant with no misdiagnoses. The age of the patients ranged from 50 years to 90 years; however, the predominant population was in the sixth decade (31.8%) and seventh decade (35.1%), with a mean age of 75.3 years. There is no significant difference noted in the mean age of the non-neoplastic and neoplastic groups. Conclusion: This study shows that morphology alone is sufficient for the diagnosis of both Benign and prostatic lesions, as shown by the accuracy level (100%) in the haematoxylin and Eosin results. This is particularly important in resource-poor settings such as ours.