[Clinically unsuspected notifiable tumors in selected autopsy material].

From January 1967 until December 1976, 25,361 inhabitants of the town of Erfurt have died, and 8,503 of them were autopsied at the Pathological Institute of Erfurt. This corresponds to a necropsy rate of 33.5% (36.9% in males and 30.7% in females). 2,496 of 4,638 patients with a notifiable malignant tumor (53.8%) were autopsied. In 1,509 (60.5%) of them the tumor was clinically known, in 687 cases (27.5%) it had been suspected and in 300 patients (12%) the tumor was clinically occult. The proportion of clinically only suspected but unknown notifiable tumors increases beyond the 6th decade of life. In general, this is more frequent in males than in females. Malignomas of liver, CNS, pancreas, gall bladder and extrahepatic bile ducts belong to the most frequent clinically unsuspected tumors. The notifiable tumor was the direct cause of death in 1,212 (48.5%) of the deceased patients, in 1,088 (43.6%) it was the basic disease. Only in 196 cases (7.9%) the tumor was assessed to be an accompanying disease.