Papillary thyroid carcinoma associated with two other primary skins carcinomas: Pathophysiological and epidemiological approach - A case report

Nowadays multiple primary cancers is a clinical setting which has an increasing frequency, given the increased cure rate of the first cancer and the progress of the diagnostic and therapeutic techniques in oncology. Thereby, the coexistence of multiple primary cancers in a single patient has been described in oncology literature with a frequency varying from 5.5 to 8.5% for all cancers combined. The association of three primary cancers represents a very rare entity. The authors propose, through this work, to report the case of a patient suffering from a triple cancer, a cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma in the right cheek treated by surgical excision and external radiotherapy, an infiltrating basal cell carcinoma of the nose and then a well differentiated papillary thyroid carcinoma. Considering the literature data, the analysis of this observation has raised several issues for discussion, especially the possible pathophysiological involvement of several external and/or genetic factors in the genesis of these cancers. Also, it will be interesting, in this category of patients, to adopt a regular and an adequate strategy of monitoring these cancers already detected and to prevent the occurrence of a second or third cancer. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.