The Effects of Secondary Cancers on Survival in Patients with Breast, Lung and Prostate Cancer

Abstract

OBJECTIVEThe effects of subsequent primary cancers on survival analyses have been an area of clinical interest. Thisstudy aimed to evaluate the effects of subsequent primaries developed after the first primary tumor onthe overall survival.METHODSWe analyzed data on 6179 patients who had lung, breast or prostate cancer as their first primary cancer.All patients were recorded in the Cancer Registry Unit of the Health Directorate of Antalya Provinceof Turkey. We analyzed the data concerning each of the three first primaries. We utilised Kaplan-Meiersurvival analyses and log-rank test to compare the overall survival rates of patients with single primarytumors and patients with multiple primary tumors. In addition, we stratified data according to age,gender, number of primary tumors (patients with single primary, patients with multiple primaries), ordisease stage of the first primary (metastatic, non-metastatic). Lastly, potential prognostic factors wereseparately evaluated in Cox-regression models.RESULTSWe found that the overall survival of lung cancer patients with a single primary was shorter than that ofpatients with multiple primaries (p