BACKGROUNDAging of population in Macau has become a serious problem and we are diagnosing more and more patients with prostate cancer. To investigate the effect of ethnicity and environment on incidence of prostate carcinoma, we compared the difference of biopsy and postoperative pathology of prostate between indigenous Chinese (Chinese) and Chinese of Portuguese descent (Portuguese) with elevated serologic prostate specific antigen (PSA) and incidence of prostate carcinoma in Macau.

METHODSBetween 1999 and 2006, prostate biopsy was performed in a random sample of 462 patients with elevated serologic PSA who, on followup, were diagnosed in this hospital with benign prostate hyperplasia. Of these, 416 were indigenous Chinese, 46 Portuguese. Based on demographic statistics by Macau government for 2005, we compared differences in incidences of prostate carcinoma, positive rate of random prostate biopsy in patients with elevated serologic PSA, factors related to serological PSA and pathological grade and stage between both ethnic groups.

RESULTSProstate carcinoma was diagnosed on biopsy in 178 cases. Positive biopsies of prostate carcinoma were present in 160 Chinese with positive rate of 38.5% and in 18 Portuguese with 39.1%. For patients diagnosed with prostate carcinoma, there was no significant difference in age, incidence, grade of cancerous cells, stage of the disease, incidence of inflammation of prostatic tissues or prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN) related to elevated PSA between the groups (All P>0.05).

CONCLUSIONSThere was no significant difference in incidence or characteristics of prostate carcinoma between people of Portuguese and Chinese descent in Macau based on our limited data. Long term residence in the same environment may be associated with the incidence and progression of prostate carcinoma in Portuguese living in Macau, but further rigorous epidemiological investigation and analysis of risk factors about prostate carcinoma are needed to corroborate this conclusion.

Aged ; China ; ethnology ; Humans ; Incidence ; Macau ; epidemiology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Portugal ; ethnology ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; blood ; epidemiology ; pathology

This study was carried out to investigate fifteen cases of acute lethal infection of calves (< or = 4 months of age) by the protozoan parasite Theileria (T.) annulata in the south of Portugal. Calves developed multifocal to coalescent nodular skin lesions, similar to multicentric malignant lymphoma. Infestation with ticks (genus Hyalomma) was intense. Theileria was seen in blood and lymph node smears, and T. annulata infection was confirmed by isolation of schizont-transformed cells and sequencing of hypervariable region 4 of the 18S rRNA gene. At necropsy, hemorrhagic nodules or nodules with a hemorrhagic halo were seen, particularly in the skin, subcutaneous tissue, skeletal and cardiac muscles, pharynx, trachea and intestinal serosa. Histologically, nodules were formed by large, round, lymphoblastoid neoplastic-like cells. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) identified these cells as mostly CD3 positive T lymphocytes and MAC387 positive macrophages. A marker for B lymphocytes (CD79alphacy) labeled very few cells. T. annulata infected cells in these nodules were also identified by IHC through the use of two monoclonal antibodies (1C7 and 1C12) which are diagnostic for the parasite. It was concluded that the pathological changes observed in the different organs and tissues were caused by proliferation of schizont-infected macrophages, which subsequently stimulate a severe uncontrolled proliferation of uninfected T lymphocytes.
Animals ; Base Sequence ; Cattle ; Cattle Diseases/epidemiology/*parasitology/pathology ; Cell Growth Processes/physiology ; DNA, Protozoan/chemistry/genetics ; Disease Outbreaks/*veterinary ; Female ; Immunohistochemistry/veterinary ; Lymphocytes/parasitology/*pathology ; Male ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Polymerase Chain Reaction/veterinary ; Portugal/epidemiology ; RNA, Ribosomal, 18S/chemistry/genetics ; Sequence Analysis, DNA ; Skin Diseases/epidemiology/parasitology/pathology/*veterinary ; Theileria annulata/*isolation & purification ; Theileriasis/epidemiology/parasitology/*pathology