Over the past 17 years, 52 cases of double cancers were encountered at our department. In these 52 cases, we recently carried out a clinical and statistical analysis as to the yearly distribution of cases, the site-and organ-wise distribution of cancers, the distribution of patient ages and the interval between the onset of one cancer and that of the other cancer. Of the cancers in the field of gynecology, ovarian and vulvar cancers were frequently accompanied by an additional cancer. The most frequently seen combinations of cancers were vulvar-cervical cancers, cervical-mammary cancers and ovarian-mammary cancers. The percentage of patients in whom the interval between the onset of two cancers was longer than 1 year was higher than the percentage of patients in whom the interval was shorter than 1 year. In 75% of the total cases, the interval was shorter than 5 years. An analysis of the yearly distribution of cases disclosed a recent tendency of increase in double cancer cases. These results suggest that not only the recurrence of a cancer but also the onset of an additional cancer requires a close attention during follow-up of cancer patients after treatment.
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