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The authors report the case of a 66 year old man with a Boden stage I adenocarcinoma of the rete testis treated by orchiectomy and adjuvant chemotherapy. Lung metastases developed 46 months later and were responsible for death despite further chemotherapy. Adenocarcinoma of the rete testis is an exceptional tumour, as only 23 cases satisfying the criteria defined by Feek and Hunter have been reported in the literature. The prognosis is poor even in the apparently localized forms (5 year survival less than 25%) and local recurrences and lung and/or hepatic metastases are frequent. Radiotherapy and chemotherapy appear to have little value.

Adult Still's disease is a newly described disorder that is of interest not only for the rheumatologist but also for the internist since fever or extra-articular symptoms can reveal this disorder, which appears to be identical to the Wissler-Fanconi's syndrome. We report a new case characterized by the occurrence of a constrictive pericarditis with clinical features of protracted fever, by the late appearance of a Sjögren's syndrome and by peculiar blood abnormalities: hyperleucocytosis up to 80 000 after splenectomy, transient Felty's syndrome, blood monocytosis and bone marrow mastocytosis.

The study of 36 published cases of adult Still's disease shows the following features: the onset takes place usually during the third decade of life, most often as a polyarthralgia characterized by sometimes starting fever, evanescent rash, neutrophil leukocytosis, negativity of the serological tests for rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus; lymphadenopathy and splenomegaly are frequent but not constant; serous cavities, particularly pericardium, are rather frequently involved; evolution is characterized by a succession of relapses and remissions, the far prognosis being rather good (1/3 of cures, 1/3 of mild articular relapses, 1/3 of articular sequelae, involving chiefly neck and hips); corticosteroids and heavy doses of aspirin seem to give the best therapeutic results, the usefulness of a maintenance treatment is debatable.

A new case of polycythaemia associated with an uterine fibroma is presented. The presence of erythropoietin in the tumor has been demonstrated by an in vitro technique of titration using a microculture of foetal mouse liver cells. The study of 46 previously reported cases show that the usual pattern is that of an isolated polycythaemia occurring in a woman in her fifty and of a large fibroma. The surgical cure of the tumor relieves rapidly and definitively the polycythaemia. The hypothesis of an inappropriate secretion of erythropoietin seems admitted, three factors playing probably a role in the occurrence of the polycythaemia: size of the fibroma, state of the iron stores and presence of an inhibitory factor against erythropoiesis.

A case of sternal plasmocytoma discovered 28 months after an occupational trauma is reported. At the first examination a small quantity of monoclonal IgG was present, and persisted in spite of a rather heavy treatment by irradiation and chemotherapy. To-day, more than eight years after the trauma, there is not any clinical or radiological sign of generalization, but bone marrow plasmocytosis is notably increased. Thus the long-dated prognosis is reserved. We discuss the frequency of solitary plasmocytomas of the sternum, the possibility of generalization sometimes after a very long delay, the relationship between the trauma and the plasmocytoma, the lack of pejorative significance of associated monoclonal dysglobulinemia. We suppose that in our case the dysglobulinemia antedated the trauma, this hypothesis is corresponding to the present concepts on oncogenesis, the trauma being only a cocarcinogenic agent.