[Multiple carcinomas arising from congenital cysts of the liver and kidneys]

In a 48 year old man suffering from dyspepsia and progressive enlargement of the liver, the clinical suspicion of a malignant cystic disease of the liver was voiced. Six months after the onset of the complaints the disease was diagnosed through a biopsy performed during an operative laporotomy. The patient died in spite of combined antitumorous chemotherapy in some further 7 months in a state of hepatic coma. A detailed pathologico-anatomical examination divulged the picture of a very rare form of carcinoma arising from the membrane covering not only the hepatic cysts but also those in the kidneys. Microscopically it had the structure of a papillary adenocarcinoma. Differential diagnostic variations of this tumour as compared to true neoplastic cysts i. e. cystadenomas or cystadenocarcinomas arising from the lining of hepatic bile ducts, are pointed out in this paper.