Carcinoma de origen desconocido: diagnóstico y manejo terapéutico

carcinoma of unknown primary origin is defined as the appearance of a metastatic disease where no primary tumor is detectable. it represents up to 3% of the malignant neoplasms and is among the ten most frequent cancer diagnosis. the consideration of cancer of unknown primary localization requires the performance of several basic explorations resulting insufficient to diagnose a primary tumor. within the heterogeneous group of cancer of unknown origin, there are some clinicopathologic entities having specific treatment whose diagnosis would represent a better prognosis. it is then necessary to strive for making the diagnosis of the primary tumor, having in mind such entities. there are nowadays several techniques that may help this purpose, related with immunochemistry, molecular biology and radiodiagnosis, although even with them the results may be inconclusive. we attempt in this work to analyze the different diagnostic methods, and to define those entities which may benefit with a particular treatment.