Synchronous occurrence of glioblastoma multiforme in a husband and wife

Glioblastomas developed within two years of each other in an otherwise unrelated married couple in their fifties. There was a daughter who died of Hodgkin's disease but no other unusual incidence of cancer in either siblings, parents or other children. No clear etiology of risk factors for brain tumor were identified. The development of such conjugal tumors, although apparently rare, raises important etiologic questions.