A Case of Umbilical Metastasis of Gastric Cancer

Jouji Takada, Masanobu Saitou, Kazuhito Misawa, Kunihiko Manabe, Yosinobu Hata and Fumio Sano

Department of Surgery, Sapporo Social Insurance General Hospital

We report a case of umbilical metastasis of the gastric cancer, known as Sister Mary Joseph's nodule, 4months after a curative operation. A 65-year-old woman was seen at our hospital for an umbilical tumor. After the first operation intraoperative and histopathological findings of the gastric cancer were as follows: macroscopically type 3, P0, H0, M (-), mucinous carcinoma, se, ly3, v1, n (1+). A biopsy of the umbilical tumor was performed. The specimen was diagnosed as mucinous carcinoma metastasized from the gastric cancer. During the second operation, the abdominal wall with 1cm tumor-free margins was resected. No other evidence of metastasis was found. The tumor was surgically removed and histological examination revealed metastasis from gastric cancer. It was suggested that the implantation during the gastric surgery caused the umbilical metastasis.

Key words
umbilical metastasis, gastric cancer

Reprint requests
Jouji Takada Department of Surgery Sapporo Social Insurance General Hospital 2-6-2-1 Atsubetsu-chuo, Atsubetsu-ku, Sapporo, 004-8618 JAPAN

Accepted
November 13, 1998

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