[Simultaneous or successive primary multifocal bronchial cancer. Apropos of 12 cases]

Twelve cases of bifocal and bilateral bronchial carcinoma are presented. The two tumours developed successively in 6 cases and simultaneously in 6 cases. Patients' mean age (60 years) was the same as in other lung cancers. Four out of 12 patients produced a history of old ENT or skin cancer. In 11 out of 12 cases the second tumour, undetectable by radiology, was discovered at bronchoscopy. In 2 patients the two tumours had a different histology: adenocarcinoma and squamous cell tumour. In all other cases, both tumours were of the squamous cell type. Treatment of the second contralateral tumour was difficult to determine, especially when the first tumour had been widely excised. However, radiotherapy focused on small endobronchial tumours seemed to give interesting results.