Cáncer colo-rectal multicéntrico (CCRM) en el área sanitaria de León

purpose: we analyze the characteristics of patients with multicentric colo-rectal cancer (mcrc) in the health district of león, the impact on survival, and the prognostic variables. material and methods: : using the data from the hospital de león tumour registry, we analyzed the characteristics of all the patients diagnosed of having colo-rectal tumours between 1993 and 2002. the patients were classified in two groups: one of them composed by 74 patients with mcrc, and the other formed by 1342 patients diagnosed in 1996 and 1997 of having single colo-rectal tumours. results: the observed frequency of mcrc corresponded to 2.7 percent of the whole cases. the age of the mcrc patients was 2 years higher than that of the patients with single neoplasms, and showed a higher familial oncologic history, that was present in 38 percent of the cases. no differences were observed for location and stage of the first appeared colo-rectal neoplasm. the survival of the patients developing metachronous mcrc was lower than for those with synchronous disease, possibly due to the higher number of the second neoplasms appearing in these patients at early stages. prognostic values were age, sex, and metachronous or synchronous type of disease. conclusions: mcrc is a frequent entity. the frequency of familial oncologic history is very high. no significant differences were seen in relation to prognosis between single and multiple colo-rectal cancer.