PRIMARY CARCINOMA of the liver has been described as a rapidly fatal disease. The basis for this prevailing concept has been the uniformly short clinical course in reported cases. The purpose of this paper is to report a case of primary liver-cell carcinoma in a young adult male who survived 5 yr without treatment. Report of a Case A 28-yr-old male plasterer entered the Palo Alto-Stanford Hospital on Jan 20, 1962, for evaluation of ascites which had accumulated over a 2-week period. Five years prior to admission, the patient had noted a tender epigastric mass that was estimated to be 9 cm in diameter on physical examination. The mass was thought to be located in the left lobe of the liver. There was no history of hepatitis, alcoholism, or exposure to hepatotoxins. Laboratory tests done at that time included a normal white blood cell count and differential. The serum