Umbilical metastasis from gynecologic malignancies--a clinical study of 15 cases

Umbilical metastasis from gynecologic malignancies is very rare. We report fifteen patients with primary gynecologic malignant tumors associated with umbilical metastases treated in this hospital from 1958-1991. 1, including 10 epithelial ovarian cancer. 1 malignant teratoma of the ovary, 2 endometrial carcinoma and 2 squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix. Apart from one patient initially diagnosed as stage 1 endometrial carcinoma, all patients had advanced tumors. Six patients had umbilical lesion present at the time of initial diagnosis of the primary tumor. The main clinical finding is an umbilical nodule or an ulcerated nodule in a diameter less than 2 cm. Usually the prognosis was poor. The average survival from initial diagnosis of umbilical metastasis to death was 14 months in 12 patients. There were 4 cases with longer survival, including one patient with endometrial carcinoma who survived 40 months, and 3 patients with ovarian carcinoma who survived 54, 52, 31 months, respectively. Two cases are surviving with tumor. It indicates that aggressive therapy may prolong survival time, especially in patients with ovarian cancers.