Multiple primary tumours in a population-based series of patients with histopathologically peer-reviewed sarcomas

Multiple primary tumours occurring in a three-year population-based series of patients with histopathologically peer-reviewed sarcomas from North West England were ascertained in order to look at the patterns of neoplasms seen. A total of 30 out of the 310 patients entered in the study had additional primary tumours. Very few patients were aged under 60 years at diagnosis of both their malignancies. The youngest was a known case of neurofibromatosis and, although seven patients were diagnosed with a sarcoma and carcinoma of the breast--a combination of cancers characteristic of the Li-Fraumeni cancer family syndrome--no other patients could directly be identified as suffering from any other cancer predisposition syndrome.