Metastatic carcinoma of the urinary bladder in a 67-year-old female with underlying triple primary cancers

Due to progressive ageing of our population and increasing cancer incidence rates, more and more patients are presenting with multiple primary cancers. Here we describe a case of metastatic carcinoma involving the urinary bladder with underlying triple primary adenocarcinoma in a female adult.A 67-year-old Taiwanese female presented to our institution in November 1997 with gastric signet ring cell carcinoma, pT2N0M0, status post subtotal gastrectomy. In February 2003 she was diagnosed with left breast invasive lobular carcinoma status post modified radical mastectomy, pT2N2M0. Further examination in January 2005 revealed proximal transverse colon cancer, Dukes' C2, with status post right hemicolectomy. She achieved disease-free status from all three malignancies after surgical resection and adjuvant chemotherapy for breast and colon cancers sequentially. In November 2011, she complained about sudden onset of gross hematuria for several days. Diagnostic cystoscopy showed a mass lesion over her urinary bladder. Cystoscope-assisted biopsy showed metastatic poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma with signet ring appearance. Herein we have discussed the pathologic role in the diagnosis of metastatic tumor involving a patient with multiple primary cancers. We also explored the epidemiologic risk and potential causal mechanism of patients with multiple primary cancers.