[Synchronous presentation of thyroid carcinoma and malignant lymphoproliferative disease: report of 3 cases]

Multiple primary neoplasms are increasing in clinical practice, which is mainly due to the longer survival of cancer patients. Radiotherapy at an early stage of Hodgkin disease or lymphoma is well known to be associated with the future occurrence of secondary thyroid cancer. Nevertheless, the synchronous presentation of these two types of neoplasms is exceptional. We report here three cases of synchronic diagnosis of thyroid carcinoma and a malignant lymphoproliferative disease in patients who had not previously received radiotherapy nor chemotherapy. In malignant tumours of synchronic presentation, there is usually and underlying genetic predisposition involved in the etiology. In our patients, no carcinogenic environmental factor was demonstrated and, while this neoplastic association might be casual, an investigation on the possible individual predisposing factors would be warranted.