Vol.101 No.1 contentsPRACTICA OTO-RHINO-LARYNGOLOGICA
Vol. 101 No. 1 January 2008
A Case of Quadruple Primary Cancers
Misako Hashimoto, Jun Watanabe, Hidenori Boku and Osamu Senba
(Osaka Kouseinenkin Hospital)
Hironori Takebayashi
(Hyogo College of Medecine)
The frequency of multiple primary cancers in the head and neck area is higher than that in other areas, and has increased in recent years.
We report a case of synchronous quadruple primary cancers in a 68-year-old man. He consulted our department with hypopharyngeal cancer and during systemic work-up, three other cancers were detected: esophagus, lung and stomach. Initially, we chose irradiation therapy for hypopharyngeal and esophageal cancer, and then performed simultaneous resection of lung and stomach cancer. To date, the patient has survived for 44 months without recurrence.
When we determine the appropriate treatment, for multiple cancers it is very important to evaluate the location, stage, and prognosis of each cancer and develop good cooperation with other departments involved in patient care.
We must detect second cancer as soon as possible by systemic work-up and must never forget the possibility of another cancer origins after treatment.
Early detection of additional cancer legions and good cooperation with other departments can improve the survival prognosis and quality of life even in patients with synchronous multiple cancers.
Key words :multiple primary cancers, head and neck cancer, synchronous, hypopharyngeal