[Adenocarcinomas of unknown origin. Study of 17 autopsies (author's transl)]

This article reports on the autopsy results of 17 patients with adenocarcinomas from occult primary tumours: 10 are of bronchial origin, 3 of renal origin, 1 of hepatic origin, 1 of ovarian origin, and 1 of pancreatic or bronchial origin. In one case no primary tumour was found. Factors which can lead the clinicians toward further investigations are the location or nature of the first clinical signs (neurological and respiratory for bronchial cancers, subdiaphragmatic for primary abdominal tumours) and smoking habit (bronchial carcinoma in smokers).