ABSTRACT
Through a period of 16 years, 108 cases of early gastric cancer (EGC) were diagnosed at Hospital Mexico, a leading teaching hospital of Costa Rica's social security system and the University of Costa Rica. It was found that in four cases, the gastric neoplasia was a second primary tumor, and in the two remaining cases, the EGC developed synchronously to another neoplasm. Two of the four metachronic EGC were preceded by a uterine cervix neoplasm on stage lla; the third one was preceded by a breast adenocarcinoma, and the fourth one by a larynx cancer in a heavy male smoker. The treatment received for the first cancer was radiation therapy only, except for the breast cancer patient in whom surgery was employed as well. One of the patients with uterine cervix cancer developed an epidermoid bronchogenic cancer 17 years after the first tumor and 8 years after her EGC. In the two male patients with synchro tumors, the EGC developed together with a squasmous cell carcinoma of esophagus, and in the remaining one the EGC appeared simultaneously with a peritoneal mesothelioma. It is important to emphasize the presence of radiation therapy in the metachronous tumors, as well as the antecedent of smoking in the patient with three primary cancers, the esophagus one, and the larynx cancer patient.