Approximation to the Patient with Tumor of Unknown Origin

The tumor of unknown origin constitutes 3-7% of the cancers studied and is one of the 10 most frequent cancer diagnoses. It is a malignant tumor whose first origin or identification is not done in the clinical history, in the clinical exploration or in the complementary studies. At present, the effort in the primary search for the origin of the cancer that will be directed at specifying these entities and recognizing them as soon as possible is arduous. Today we have several techniques among which we highlight immunohistochemistry, molecular biology and radiodiagnosis that greatly facilitate the work of the clinician in detecting the origin of tumors, although none of them is conclusive.