The Center for Prostate Diseases (CMP)

Uro-oncology is one of the areas that is lagging far behind in Sub-Saharan Africa. This situation is linked to several factors, notably the generally advanced stage of urological cancers making curative treatment difficult, but also the lack of adequate infrastructure and human resources for the management of these cancers. This is why IFRU-SF very early on set itself the objectives of playing the role of locomotive in the management of urological cancers in the sub-region. This objective could not have been achieved without training of members of the IFRU-SF, so by relying on its French partners, the IFRU-SF was able to send 2 of these Urologists to the Tenon Hospital (Paris) for capacity building in Uro-Oncology in 2005 and 2006. These 2 internships were reinforced by a one-year uro-oncology internship at the Urology Department of the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) in 2013. other IFRU-SF partners also traveled to the Grand Yoff General Hospital to provide staff training in the management of urological cancers with a particular emphasis on prostate cancer.

It is necessary to underline the success of the partnership between IFRU-SF and Doylestown Hospital in Philadelphia (United States) represented by Dr. Dr. Albert Ruenes, Urologist who since 2004 and almost every year has provided training in radical prostatectomy via the perineal route. This collaboration also allowed the acquisition of an ultrasound device with an endorectal probe allowing ultrasound-guided prostate biopsies to be carried out.

Other workshops were also hosted by the Urolink association in the United Kingdom for IFRU-SF staff.

All these efforts have considerably improved the management of prostate, bladder and kidney cancers. The resulting clinical activity fueled clinical research as evidenced by the numerous publications listed in the appendix.

Thanks to these initiatives and efforts of IFRU-SF, the Urology department of the Grand Yoff General Hospital constitutes a reference in the management of urogenital cancers in Sub-Saharan Africa.