2ND PRIMARY-CANCER OF THE LARYNX IN PATIENTS WITH LUNG-CANCER

Synchronous or metachronous second primary malignancies of the lung ar e sometimes encountered in patients with laryngeal cancer while the oc currence of a laryngeal second primary following cancer of the lung is rare. A two-armed study was conducted. A prospective arm in which the larynges of 56 terminal lung cancer patients were examined, and a ret rospective arm incorporating both a chart study of 126 terminal head a nd neck cancer patients (HNCP) and a computerized search of all hospit al records of patients with laryngeal and lung cancers. No laryngeal m alignancy was found in the lung cancer patients' group and no antedati ng pulmonary malignancy was recorded in the terminal HNCP. The compute rized search of 1778 lung cancer patients and 213 laryngeal cancer pat ients also failed to demonstrate cases where the former preceded the l atter. In conclusion. No second primary of the larynx was found in lun g cancer patients. These results compare with reports of large databas es where cancer of the larynx was found in a negligible percentage of lung cancer survivors and theories explaining this are discussed.