[Primary pulmonary choriocarcinoma]

The authors report a case of a young woman who had been found to have a chorio-carcinoma in the apex of the left lower lobe, following a major and recurrent haemothorax. A study of her past history and a gynaecological examination had not revealed any evidence of a primary tumour. Following this observation the possibility of a primary pulmonary carcinoma was considered and also the usual aetiological hypothesis, namely the migration of trophoblastic cells during an abortion even followed by a normal pregnancy and a degeneration after several years of these cells blocked in the pulmonary capillaries.