A 2ND PRIMARY MALIGNANCY IN A COHORT OF PATIENTS WITH EPITHELIAL OVARIAN-CANCER - CHARACTERISTICS OF DIAGNOSIS

As the life expectancy of cancer patients has been extended because of earlier diagnosis and improved therapeutic modalities, second primary tumors are being diagnosed more frequently. We have examined the clin ical characteristics of 38 second primary tumors in a cohort of patien ts diagnosed with epithelial ovarian cancer in our department over a 6 -year period. The most frequent neoplasm associations were in decreasi ng order of occurrence: ovary-breast, ovary-endometrium, and ovary-gas tro-intestinal tract. Most heterochronous second primary tumors have b een diagnosed following patient symptoms and not during routine follow -up of patients with a known primary cancer. Family history was obtain ed for 30/38 patients (19 with full pedigrees and 11 with partial info rmation). Two of these 30 patients (6.6%) had one affected first degre e relative - one with ovarian cancer and one with breast cancer. With an increased risk of developing a second malignancy after having a pre vious tumor, closer surveillance of patients posttreatment for cancer is warranted.