[The prevalence of single and synchronous multiple tumours in autopsy series and its dependence on age (author's transl)]

The present study reports the age specific prevalence rate of tumors in autopsies of the years 1958--1969, registered in the Medical Academy "Carl Gustav Carus" Dresden. The results refer to the total of all malignant tumors, to several tumor sites as well as to multiple simultaneous tumors. In many neoplasms highest prevalence occurs in presenile age (malignancies of lung, uterus, ovar, brain, and bone marrow). On the other side prevalence of carcinoma of breast, urinary bladder, kidney, prostate, and large intestine increases up to the oldest age-groups. With respect to the population the prevalence of cancer increases permanently up to the age of eighty and decreases only in the following age-groups. The age-specific prevalence of simultaneous multiple tumors referred to cases of single tumors in the post-mortem findings reveals an analogous age distribution curve. The prevalence of simultaneous cancer is discussed concerning the influence of age and duration of the malignancy.