[The problem of malignant deuteropathy following cytostatic therapy]

Among 17,676 patients admitted to our clinic between 1965 and 1974, we have observed 22 cases of malignant deuteropathy-either after cytostatic therapy or radiation, or as "spontaneous" primary multiple tumors. Their catamneses were analyzed. Seven cases raise a strong suspicion that cytostatic therapy may have induced a cancer. A statistical analysis is not possible with our group of patients. To avoid an inadmissible evaluation of these individual observations, they were compared with the 10 "spontaneous" double tumors observed during the same period. Advances in our knowledge of this field are, in our opinion, to be expected of central cancer registers.