[Clinical aspects of carcinoma of the liver (author's transl)]

The incidence of epi-cirrhotic liver carcinoma is apparently on the increase. Between 1969 and 1973 there were 84 cases of primary liver carcinoma and 467 of cirrhosis among 10211 autopsies. In 74 (16%) the carcinoma had developed in a cirrhotic liver. Clincally the diagnosis of carcinoma had been made in only 14 cases. The mean survival time after the diagnosis was seven weeks, after onset of the terminal symptoms 13 weeks. Typical clinical features were decompensated, hypertrophic, often coarsely granular, liver cirrhosis. The best diagnostic method was apparently laproscopy and determination of alpha 1-fetoprotein and cholestatic enzymes.