[Analysis of multiple cancers in autopsy cases of elderly hematological malignancies]

To investigate the actual situation of multiple cancers including hematological malignancies, 266 autopsy cases with one or more hematological malignancies were compiled from autopsy case files between January 1995 and October 2006 in our hospital. The median age at death was 75 years (range 48 to 102 yr). Of 266 cases, 72 (27.1%) had multiple cancers. Of these 72 cases, 62 cases were complicated with non-hematological malignancy, and 10 cases showed duplication of other hematological malignancies. Prostate and colon cancers were frequent as complicating cancers. Seventeen of 256 cases without duplication of other hematological malignancies demonstrated 3 or 4 cancers (6.6%). Of 10 cases showing duplication of other hematological malignancies, 9 cases had NHL. The rate of multiple cancers in elderly patients with hematological malignancy was higher than that of non-hematological cancers.