A young woman was followed at Duke Hospital through the course of a rapidly fatal illness which was diagnosed at autopsy as visceral Kaposi's sarcoma. The patient is reported here because of the rarity of this neoplasm in women and because of the occurrence during life of an unusual physical finding. Two other cases are included in this report where similar neoplasms were found at autopsy: one had had thorium dioxide study of the liver 18 years prior to death, and a striking correlation existed between the sites of tumor involvement and the still-radioactive thorium deposits; another patient suffered from visceral lesions as well as typical Kaposi cutaneous lesions.
Report of Cases
Case 1.
—A 27-year-old white female factory worker was admitted to Duke Hospital in December of 1957 with a rapidly progressing illness characterized by extreme emaciation and an enlarging abdominal mass. She had been well until two months