A review of urologic cancer patients with multiple primary malignancies

Much has been written on the treatment of solitary or multiple metastatic n odules that sometimes present in patients with urological malignancies. How ever, relatively little has been published regarding those patients with ur ological cancer who have another concomitant primary non-urologic tumor. We describe several cases of patients who presented with a urologic malignanc y and a secondary non-urologic tumor. We also reviewed the literature using MEDLINE to gather information concerning this rare occurrence. We found th at secondary malignancies, although not very common, are being increasingly reported. They are usually detected during the preoperative work-up of the primary tumor, usually by CT scan, ultrasound, or chest X-ray. Most author s suggest that treatment should be directed at the more aggressive lesion f irst, which would improve the overall status of the patient, and thus allow a better response from therapy for the secondary lesion. While patients wi th multiple primary malignancies are rare, the urologist should be alerted to this possibility when evaluating the patient for the initially presentin g or detected tumor.