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Vol.43 No.4 contents

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- Original Article -

A Clinical Study on Multiple Primary Cancers in the Lung and Other Organs

Shinji Kanemitsu¹, Motoshi Takao¹, Kazuya Fujinaga¹, Koji Onoda¹, Takatsugu Shimono¹, Hideto Shimpo¹, Isao Yada¹, Shoji Namikawa^2
1Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Mie University, Japan, ²Department of Surgery, National Fuji Hospital, Japan

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Objective and Methods. Recently, the number of surgical cases of primary lung cancer associated with multiple primary cancers in other organs has increased. We studied 90 cases (6.6%) of multiple primary cancers, among 1361 patients with surgically resected lung cancer during a 33-year period from 1968 to 2000. Result. Among the 90 cases of multiple primary cancers there were 78 cases of double cancers and 12 cases of triple cancers. Eleven cases had synchronous and 79 cases had metachronous multiple cancers. The average age of the patients at the time of lung resection was 64.5 (double cancer type), 70.7 (triple cancer type) years. The most common site of the other primary cancers was the stomach (26 cases), followed by colon and rectum (18), the laryngopharynx (7), breast (6), bladder (6) and uterus (5). For metachronous double cancer, the 5-year overall survival rates calculated from the time of lung cancer resection was 75.0% (when the lung cancer was first) and 60.1% (when another cancer was first). The 5-year survival rate of the metachronous type was significantly better than that of the synchronous type. Thirty-six of 90 patients have already died. Twenty (55.6%) of them died of lung cancer. Conclusion. It is considered that multiple primary cancers might increase henceforth, especially in heavy smokers. Therefore, we recommend careful examinations to defect development of a second primary cancer in other organs, as well as surveillance studies to detect recurrence of the first primary cancer.
key words: Primary lung cancer, Double cancer, Prognosis

Received: April 4, 2003
Accepted: May 29, 2003

JJLC 43 (4): 301-306, 2003