Therapeutic possibilities and limits in multiple primary carcinomas: consideration of 38 cases.

The authors report their experiences of 38 cases of multiple primary carcinomas, of which 17 were synchronous and 21 metachronous. Some of them were localized to the same organs and others on different organs. It is important that diagnosis be established in due time for the first and most of all, for the second or third tumour. Surgery by tumour exeresis constitutes the main treatment, being associated with radiotherapy and chemotherapy as adjuvants. The results recorded here may be considered to be quite good, since many patients reached 5 years of survival, both after the first and after the second operation. Thus, mean survival was 5.53 years in the 17 patients with synchronous carcinomas and more than 10 years in the 21 cases of metachronous carcinomas, i.e. 8.9 years after the first operation +4.05 years after the second operation with a 2.63 mortality rate.