Objective  To investigate the safety and feasibility of laparoscopy-assisted resection of simultaneous double primary carcinoma of the gastrointestinal tract.

  Methods  To retrospectively analyze the data of 11 patients who underwent laparoscopic resection for concurrent double primary carcinoma of the gastrointestinal tract in Inner Mongolia People's Hospital between January 2019 and April 2023, and discuss the safety and feasibility of laparoscopic adjuvant treatment of concurrent double primary carcinoma of the gastrointestinal tract considering the relevant literature.

  Results   The 10 males and one female had a mean age of 63.4 (44–81) years. Ten patients underwent laparoscopic treatment with the simultaneous resection of both primary cancers, while one underwent the procedure in two separate operations over a 5-month period. Overall, three patients had gastric cancer combined with colon and rectal cancer; five had colon cancer combined with rectal cancer; two had colon cancer combined with colon cancer; and one had small bowel cancer combined with colon cancer. The mean operative time was (317±141) min, mean intraoperative blood loss was (79±39) mL, mean postoperative hospital stay was (10.7±3.9) d, and median hospital treatment cost was 61,291 (39,767-117,196) Renminbi (RMB). All patients were successfully discharged after surgery; one patient experienced postoperative anastomotic bleeding. Patients were followed for (3-42) months: one was lost to follow-up, one developed local recurrence of the tumor at 6 months postoperative, and the rest survived with no significant signs of recurrence.

  Conclusions   Uniform guidelines for the treatment of multiple primary tumors are lacking; thus, identifying an anti-cancer treatment strategy is the greatest challenge for practitioners when patients are diagnosed with two active malignancies. Patients with concurrent multiple primary cancers of the gastrointestinal tract should be treated with concurrent radical tumor resection whenever possible to reduce surgery-associated trauma, reduce the length of hospital stay and treatment costs, and buy time for follow-up treatment.