Multiple tumor case: report and analysis of an autopsy case

An interesting multiple tumor case is described in which 4 different kinds of tumors were diagnosed in the same patient at autopsy and histopathologic examination. The tumors were the following: 1) prolactinoma of the anterior pituitary lobe; 2) basal cell carcinoma of the nose; 3) adenocarcinoma of the colon sigmoideum; 4) multiple oncocytomas (oncocytomatosis) in the kidneys. Immunohistochemical investigation for p53 revealed a strong intranuclear positivity in the colonic carcinoma cells as a result of the overexpression of a possible mutant type of the protein. The other 3 tumors were negative with the p53-specific DO-7 antibody, therefore, no point mutation was thought to be present in the p53 gene of the tumor cells. The immunohistochemical and anamnestic data suggested that this is not a hereditary syndrome, and there is no common pathogenesis of these tumors. Its rarity is interesting in our case because of the coincidence of 4 different unrelated tumors and the absence of anamnestic data for familial accumulation or predisposition for multiple tumors.