Sister Mary Joseph's nodule: a clinical and histologic study

Abstract

The clinical and histologic findings in eighty-five cases of tumors metastatic to the umbilicus were studied. Clinically, the lesions were seen as firm, indurated nodules, sometimes with fissuring or ulceration. In twelve cases, the initial presentation of the internal primary malignancy was an umbilical nodule. Histologic material from the metastatic umbilical tumor was studied in all cases but was diagnostic of the primary carcinoma in only twenty-one. In seventeen cases, the primary site was never reliably determined, while stomach, large bowel, ovary, and pancreas were the most frequent primary sites in the other cases. Most patients died within months after the appearance of the umbilical tumors, thus emphasizing the ominous significance of this sign of metastatic, usually intra-abdominal, malignant disease.