[Multiple cancers. Apropos of a quadruple cancer]

A woman of 48 years of age presented over a period of twelve years with, successively, a cancer of the rectum, a cancer of the breast, cancer of the scalp and finally of the endometrium without metastases. Her general condition stayed good. We have looked into the nosological, statistical, pathogenic and prognostic features of multiple cancers. It does seem that the hormone state may be the trigger for this polycancerous condition (hyperoestrogenaemia). This was linked to an alimentary factor (obesity) and to a family history of a predisposition to cancer, as our patient was the tissue of a blood-related marriage and a member of a family where the incidence of cancer was 40%. Multiple cancers are 2.42% of all cancers but are mainly double or triple cancers. There are only 20 cases of quadruple cancers in the literature. One can divide these into: Cancers with a short interval between each appearance of simultaneous appearances, which usually occur at an advanced age, due to simple chance and often with a bad prognosis. Cancers that occur at longer intervals in younger people, which are rarer and show a family predisposition or endogenous factors. Their prognosis is as a whole better.