Primary Carcinoma of the Liver

Primary carcinoma of the liver is comparatively rare in this country. Few cancers, however, have a poorer prognosis once the disease is recognized. The disease apparently spreads silently through the blood-filled sinusoids, destroying much parenchyma before it causes sufficient damage to make its presence known. Hope of cure depends on early diagnosis and complete surgical extirpation of the tumor. Recent advances in surgical technique have brightened the possibility of cure. If these advances are to be fully utilized, however, some method of earlier diagnosis must be discovered. Presented here is a case of malignant cholangioma in a young woman which was discovered in her second postpartum month. A total right hepatic lobectomy was carried out in an attempt to eradicate the tumor. One cannot say who first described primary liver cancer. Carl von Rokitansky,45in 1849, insisted that primary liver cancer was a common affection. He also separated primary