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Tumors of Unknown Primary

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Essentials of Anatomic Pathology

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Abstract

In this chapter “unknown primary” encompasses two situations: an undifferentiated tumor (assumed primary – unknown primary cancer (UPC)) that cannot be diagnosed by light microscopy and a metastasis of unknown origin (MUO). Tumors of unknown primary account for about 3–5% of all cancer patients, which places them in the ten most common malignancies. The goal is to correctly identify the tumor type and/or primary site while minimizing the number of markers (stepwise panels) and/or the testing time; usually the process is a compromise of these two systems. Various studies have shown a success rate of 66–90%.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Hematology Oncology, Quest Diagnostics Nichols Institute, 33608 Ortega Highway, San Juan Capistrano, CA, 92675, USA

    Raul Gabriel Simental-Pizarro MD

  2. Department of Pathology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Nancy Klipfel MD

  3. 460 South Spring Street #817, Los Angeles, CA, 90013, USA

    Nancy Klipfel MD

  4. Department of Pathology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Clive R. Taylor MD, PhD, FRCPATH

Authors
  1. Raul Gabriel Simental-Pizarro MD
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  2. Nancy Klipfel MD
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  3. Clive R. Taylor MD, PhD, FRCPATH
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

    Liang Cheng

  2. Granger Diagnostics, A Division of Granger Genetics, North Chesterfield, Virginia, USA

    David G. Bostwick

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Simental-Pizarro, R.G., Klipfel, N., Taylor, C.R. (2016). Tumors of Unknown Primary. In: Cheng, L., Bostwick, D. (eds) Essentials of Anatomic Pathology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23380-2_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23380-2_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-23379-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-23380-2

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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