In-patient treatment was applied to 64 patients for carcinoma of Vater's papilla at the Surgical Department of Münster University, between 1974 and 1985. Their average age was 57.3 years. Most of the tumours investigated were highly or moderately differentiated. The average time that passed from the first symptoms was 2.4 months, before most of the patients sought medical consultation for jaundice and loss of weight. Tumours were removed from 54 patients (84.4 per cent). No curative therapy was possible in ten cases. Lymph node or distant metastases were recorded at the time of treatment from 16 of all 64 patients or from six of those who had undergone radical resection. Five-year survival probability after curative surgery was attributed to 42.1 per cent of all patients concerned.