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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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
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