Cancer in married couples

A review of 2,512 charts of cancer admissions in a small community hospital during a ten-year period revealed 19 married couples with cancer. Compared with other studies this number appears small. However, only 2% of our cases mentioned the spouse in the family histories, apparently because emphasis seems to be on genetics, not on environment. It was further noted that two out of 19 couples had the same type of cancer originating from the same organ, and ten pairs had tumors of the same histopathologic type. Cancer manifested itself in the wives a few years before the husbands, though the wives were younger.