ABCB5 in peripheral blood of a patient affected by multiple primary malignancies

BACKGROUND: Multiple primary neoplasm malignancies syndrome (MPMN), is the presence of two or more abnormal growths of tissue, occurring simultaneously. Although the number of second malignancies is increasing, due to several factors, the presence of triple or quadruple malignancies is still very rare. PATIENT AND METHODS: We report a case of a 78-year-old man, with six primaries: a prostatic adenocarcinoma, breast cancer, two melanoma, a basal cell carcinoma, and a lymphoma in a four years period. RESULTS: The onset of MPMN is probably caused by a mutation of DNA repair genes, probably the TP53 gene. Common features of this syndrome are early rise and low tendency to metastatize. We reviewed the markers of staminality for various tumors: RNA expression of ALDH1, CD 133, and ABCB 5, extracted from the sentinel lymph node (SLN) and from the peripheral blood of the patient, was verified. CONCLUSION: People with multiple tumors represent a segment of the cancer-survivor population, which is continuously increasing (10%). Several genetic mutation can be involved in this kind of population. Our patient was positive for the expression of ABCB5, a marker for staminality of melanoma, in periphal blood.