Patients with urologic cancer and other nonurologic malignancies: analysis of a sample and review of the literature.

OBJECTIVES

To describe our experience with patients with urologic cancers who also have malignancies of nonurologic origin, before, after, or simultaneously, to review the literature, and to suggest treatment options.

METHODS

We reviewed our institutions' tumor registry from 1995 to 2000 to discover how many patients had a urologic malignancy and another nonurologic cancer (antecedent, subsequent, or synchronous). We reviewed Medline from 1966 to 2000 and also questioned several urologists at major centers in the United States concerning this clinical dilemma.

RESULTS

We encountered 18 patients during a 6-year period with a urologic cancer and another primary malignancy. Thirteen patients had their second cancer detected during the workup of their primary urologic tumor. Two patients developed a second tumor within 1 year of treatment of the primary urologic tumor. Another patient was referred with two primaries already diagnosed, and another had renal carcinoma detected during her colon cancer workup. We found that multiple tumors, although very rare, are usually detected during the preoperative workup of the primary tumor, usually by physical examination and improved radiologic imaging, or during the follow-up examinations. Most reports suggest that treatment should be performed simultaneously, especially if the lesions are relatively small and require a single incision, and the patient's medical condition allows longer anesthesia exposure. If these prerequisites are not met, most investigators agree that treatment should be directed at the more aggressive lesion first, which may improve the condition and/or survival, and thus, if a second operation is warranted, it will be possible.

CONCLUSIONS

Although patients with multiple malignancies are rare, the urologist and/or other specialist should be alerted to this possibility when evaluating patients for the initially presenting symptoms and/or detected tumor, as well as during the follow-up evaluations.