MALIGNANT HEPATIC-TUMORS ASSOCIATED WITH PREVIOUS EXPOSURE TO THOROTRAST - 4 CASES

This report concerns four patients in a district general hospital who died from malignant liver tumours associated with Thorotrast (thorium dioxide) deposits in the liver. Three were known to have had diagnosti c angiographic studies performed 36 to 43 years previously using Thoro trast as the contrast agent. In the fourth case no previous relevant i nformation could be obtained. There were two men and one woman with he patocellular carcinoma and one woman with cholangiocarcinoma. In one o f the hepatoma cases there was associated hypercalcaemia of malignancy . Reported latency intervals suggest that cases of Thorotrast-related hepatic malignancy may present up to the second decade of the twenty-f irst century.