Alpha-fetoprotein-producing pancreatic carcinoma: case report and review of the Japanese literature.

An autopsy was performed of a patient who succumbed to pancreatic carcinoma and in whom an unusually high level of serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) (84,000 ng/ml) was obtained. An immunohistochemical approach, utilizing the peroxidase-antiperoxidase method, proved that AFP was confined within pancreatic carcinomatous cells of the primary lesion and liver metastases. No AFP-positive cells were ever observed in the hepatocytes adjacent to the metastatic lesions in the liver. It may be inferred that, in this particular case, the carcinomatous cells themselves synthesize AFP. The sites of production of AFP in AFP-positive pancreatic carcinoma were discussed in a review of the literature.