Lactic acidosis: a metabolic complication of extensive metastatic cancer.

Lactic acidosis is a rare metabolic complication of cancer. An analysis of the cases reported in the English and French literature shows that all the patients have extensive neoplastic disease. Metastatic hepatic lesions are present in the large majority of cases, suggesting that alteration of liver function is part of the clinical picture. Chemotherapy against the neoplastic disease is the only effective treatment of this type of lactic acidosis.