[The size of the liver metastases in a low metastatic count. A quantitative study of postmortem livers]

In this postmortem study 34 livers with one or few "large" metastases (greater than 1 cm) were investigated for the presence of synchronous "small" metastases (less than 1 cm). A total of 671 metastases were investigated morphometrically. Of these, 134 were large and 537 were small according to the given definitions. The relation of large to small metastases was 1:4 and turned out to be relatively constant in most cancer types, except for colorectal cancers. The latter showed a relation of 1:1.6 which is more favourable for the detection of occult small secondaries. The results are discussed in the view of the preoperative diagnosis of liver metastases.