临床肿瘤学(2003年英文版)第24章-第33章chapter30【荐】.pdfVIP

30 Metastatic GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS Metastatic cancer from an unknown primary site (MCUP) represents approximately 5% of new cancer di- Cancer from agnoses in the United States .One useful working defini- tion of this entity is histologically confirmed metastatic an Unknown cancer in patients in whom a complete medical history, careful physical examination, basic blood tests, selected radiologic examination, and sophisticated histopatho- Primary Site logic studies fail to reveal the origin of the tumor Indeed, most practicing physicians can recall having seen such cases, which usually are memorable because of the attendant diagnostic uncertainty, the urgent concern and confusion of patients and their families, and the po- tentially time-consuming and frustrating search for the primary lesion .Often, this search involves a multitude of tests, at great expense, that may not shed any light on the Sridhar Ramaswam