Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Dec 15, 2015; 7(12): 434-444
Published online Dec 15, 2015. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v7.i12.434
Multiple primary colorectal cancer: Individual or familial predisposition?
José A Pajares, José Perea
José A Pajares, Department of Gastreoenterology, Gregorio Marañon University Hospital, 28007 Madrid, Spain
José Perea, Department of Surgery, 12 de Octubre University Hospital, 28041 Madrid, Spain
Supported by Mutua Madrileña Foundation, No. 2012-0036.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare no conflict of interests for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: José Perea, MD, PhD, Department of Surgery, 12 de Octubre University Hospital, C/Rosas de Aravaca, 82A. 1º Dcha, E-28023, 28041 Madrid, Spain. josepereag@hotmail.com
Telephone: +34-669-332053
Received: June 27, 2015
Peer-review started: July 1, 2015
First decision: September 14, 2015
Revised: September 28, 2015
Accepted: October 20, 2015
Article in press: October 27, 2015
Published online: December 15, 2015
Processing time: 169 Days and 23.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Multiple primary colorectal cancer (MCRC), both Synchronous and Metachronous tumours, is not deeply studied yet, and also has a great clinical impact. Both genetic and environmental factors may affect in the development of MCRC, collaborating in promoting different foci of dysplasia. In general terms, Metachronous forms are mainly related to family factors whereas Synchronous tumours are linked with individual factors. With the exception of cases of hereditary forms of colorectal carcinoma (CRC), the others appears without a well-known molecular basis, and maybe different from sporadic colorectal cancer. For all these reasons, we present a review focused on the state of the art of these particular forms of CRC.