CONTEXTE

Since its creation, IFRU-SF has laid the foundations for research activity through international partnerships, the most important of which is the collaboration with the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics of the University of Pennsylvania (UPEN) in Philadelphia, United States. United. This research work focused on prostate cancer and began with a pilot study which made it possible to describe the clinical aspects of prostate cancer in Senegal and to assess research needs.

Very quickly this partnership led to the creation of PROGRES (Prostate cancer Genetic Research in Senegal) and a research project funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH) of the United States. This Project, whose main researchers were Professor Serigne GUEYE (UCAD) and Dr Timothy REBBECK (UPENN), had the objectives of establishing a research infrastructure and describing the epidemiological, clinical and genetic characteristics of cancer. . of the prostate in Senegal. This research found a generally advanced stage of prostate cancer and a relatively higher proportion of prostate cancer susceptibility alleles among Senegalese compared to Caucasians and Asians living in the United States. As part of a case-control study among Senegalese patients, the results also show a significantly higher proportion of these susceptibility alleles in patients with prostate cancer compared to controls.

The advanced stage of prostate cancer cases in our population is part of a more global context characterized by an absence of a systematic cancer screening program in Senegal but also an absence of tumor registers which causes difficulty in evaluating the impact. of prostate cancer in Senegal.

RESULTS

This research program has produced a certain number of publications which will be listed in the appendix. It also allowed IFRU to establish partnerships with several institutions in Senegal (Molecular Biology Laboratory of Professor Souleymane MBOUP, Le Dantec Hospital, CDRMM, Laboratoires Bio-24) but also internationally with the Men of African Descent Carcinoma Consortium of the Prostate (MadCAP) which brings together researchers from Africa, the United States and the Caribbean interested in prostate cancer in black subjects.