A family of Gardner's syndrome with report of an autopsy case.

A family with Gardner's syndrome including one autopsy case is reported. A 22 year-old man had multiple polyposis of the colon and the small intestine, epidermal cysts, soft part tumor of the abdominal skin and osteomas in the calvarium and rib, and died of a carcinoma in the transverse colon and embolism of the brain. Histologically, all polyps were diagnosed as adenomatous polyp. The greater their diameter, the higher the tendency of atypism was observed. However, the polyps around the cancer were few, small, and with low atypism, and we could not obtain evidence showing direct transformation of adenomatous polyps into carcinoma. His two elder brothers had multiple polyposis of the colon, epidermal cysts and osteomas in the calvarium or mandibular bone, but are still alive.