Published online May 28, 2015. doi: 10.5319/wjo.v5.i2.74
Peer-review started: September 25, 2014
First decision: January 8, 2015
Revised: January 23, 2015
Accepted: February 9, 2015
Article in press: February 11, 2015
Published online: May 28, 2015
Processing time: 238 Days and 9.5 Hours
Multiple primary cancers are becoming an increasingly frequent situation and are often the source of many diagnostic and therapeutic difficulties. We report the case of two patients diagnosed with head and neck synchronous carcinomas. The first case is a 33-year-old man with a history of a keratinizing squamous cell carcinoma of the eye lid and who was operated 4 mo later from a mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the submandibular salivary gland. The second case is a 71-year-old woman who underwent a total parotidectomy for a mucoepidermoïd carcinoma of the left parotid gland and who consulted 2 mo later for epistaxis. The explorations concluded to a squamous cell carcinoma of the nasopharynx. The patient had a complementary radiotherapy. No local neither distant recurrence of the two tumors has been detected after a follow-up of 36 mo in the first case and 24 mo in the second one.
Core tip: Patients with head and neck cancer have a high risk of developing a simultaneous locoregional tumor. At the time of cancer diagnosis and during the follow-up, the clinician must search carefully for a second neoplasm which may reduce significantly the survival expectancy and have to be managed accurately. This paper describes and discusses, over two observations, the clinical and therapeutic features of these multiple primary cancers.