COLORECTAL-CANCER ASSOCIATED WITH MULTIPL E PRIMARY MALIGNANT-TUMORS

Introduction: The finding of more than one carcinoma throughout the li fe of a patient is not unusual. In fact, the occurrence of multiple pr imary cancers has been well documented. However, the features, implica tions and prognosis of colorectal cancers associated to other malignan cies, have been less well documented. Patients and method: We report 2 9 patients with multiple primary neoplasms in which at least one of th em was a colorectal cancer. Number, extension and localization of colo nic neoplasm, and time interval between diagnosis of both neoplasms, a nd mortality and survival rate were retrospectively analyzed. Follow-u p ranged from 1 to 360 months. Results: Twenty three patients had two cancers, and six more than three neoplasms. Colorectal cancer was prim ary in 8 patients, metachronous in 14 patients and sinchronous in 5 pa tients. Breast (7 cases), prostate (5 cases), endometrium (3 patients) and stomach (3 cases), were the other malignancies most frequently de tected. Overall, 13 of the 27 patients (49%) died during the follow-up period after the recognition of the colorectal cancer. Two patients w ere lost to follow-up. Mantel-Haenszel test did not show significative differences in survival between patients with two or more neoplasms. There were no differences in survival depending upon the timing of dia gnosis of the colorectal tumor. Conclusions: These data suggest that c olorectal cancer may share etiologic factors with hormone-dependent ne oplasms (breast, prostate) and gastric cancer. In patients with primar y multiple neoplasms, the number of neoplasms detected and the interva l time between both diagnosis are not prognostic factors when one of t he malignancies in colorectal cancer.