Profile of prostate cancer at the general hospital of Porto Alegre

To describe prevalence and features of prostate cancer in the sample. A five year long voluntary screening program was carried out in the "Hospital das Clínicas de Porto Alegre" with the participation of 3,056 patients in a cross sectional study. For statistical analysis the chi square test was used, considering a significance level of p < 0.05 Mean age of the sample was of 60.4 years and prevalence of prostate cancer was of 2.61%, increasing with age. Sensitivity and specificity of PSA were respectively 93.8% (CI = 85.4% to 97.7%) and 82.5% (CI = 81.1% to 83.8%), considering 4 ng/ml as the cut-off point for PSA. Rectal examination had a sensitivity of 60% (CI = 48.4% to 70.6%) and a specificity of 83.3% (CI = 81.9% to 84.6%) The number of biopsies performed for the diagnosis of a patient with prostate cancer was 11.9 and varied according to age. As for clinical staging, 51.3% of patients were T1C and 83.75% of the tumors were clinically confined to the organ. Screening programs can be performed in our environment and direct to a frequent diagnosis of patients with prostate cancer confined to the organ.