ABSTRACT
Objective To elucidate the clinical characteristics of multiple primary malignant neoplasms(MPMNs) in elderly patients,and the relationship between MPMNs and its prognosis.Methods The data of 155 patients,including 114 males and 5 females,who were hospitalized to the authors' department during 1974 to 2007 and were diagnosed as MPMNs were retrospectively analyzed.Among them there were 119 patients with MPMNs in digestive system,accounting for 76.77%.The analyses for the characteristics of MPMNs included the sites of neoplasms,the age of onset,length of interval,pathologic types and survival time.Results The median age of onset of the first,second and third tumor were 71,77 and 78.5 years old,respectively.In the digestive system the earliest tumor occurred in stomach(40.4%),and then large intestine(34.5%),esophagus(10.5%) and liver(8.7%) sequentially.Most of them were adenocarcinoma.When the whole body was concerned,the neoplasms occurred earliest in the digestive system,and then the respiratory system,urinary system,male reproductive system and hematological system in sequence.Adenocarcinoma was the primary carcinoma in the digestive system.There were 26 synchronous multiple primary cancers(SMPC) and 93 metachronous multiple primary cancers(MMPC) in the 119 cases,and the intervals in MMPC were 156 totally.Conclusion Multiple primary cancers in the gastrointestinal tract occur commonly.The predilection sites of MPMNs in elderly patients are stomach and large intestine,and most of the neoplasms are adenocarcinoma.The prognosis of MMPC is better than SMPC.The longer the intervals between the first tumor and the second one,the better the prognosis of the patients will be.