Abstract
An analysis of 10 primary multiple malignant tumors of the head and neck isreported. The primary multiple tumors constituted 6.8% of 148 head and neck malignanciestreated in our department. Of 8 tumors with initial development in the head and neckregions, 3 occurred in the buccal mucosa and 5 in the maxillary gingiva, mandibulargingiva, floor of the mouth, tongue and parotid gland. The tongue and maxillary gingivawere the sites of involvement of 2 other cases in which head and neck tumors were secon-dary tumors. Sites of involvement other than the head and neck included the lungs, colon, rectum, stomach, pancreas, thyroid gland, breast, urethra and cervical lymph nodes.
Histologically, 8 of the 10 head and neck tumors were squamous cell carcinomas. Fortumors in other sites, adenocarcinoma was the diagnosis in 5 cases, followed by squamouscell carcinoma (3 cases) and malignant lymphoma (2 cases).
The results indicate that with the increasing age of patients with head and neck cancerand their improved survival rate, much more care should be directed to the potentialdevelopment of second malignancies in this patient group.
