Carcinoma of the Umbilicus Metastatic From Carcinoma of the Stomach

CARCINOMA of the umbilicus, either primary or occurring by metastasis has seldom been reported, but has long been known to occur. Osier,1 in the first edition of his textbook, speaking of cancer of the stomach, stated: "... Occa-sionally, a secondary metastatic growth occurs subcutaneously, either at the navel or beneath the skin in the vicinity. In an instance recently under ob-servation in a patient with jaundice, which developed somewhat suddenly and was believed to be catarrhal, there were no signs of enlargement of the liver or tumor of the stomach, but a nodular body developed at the navel, which on removal proved to be typical scirrhous carcinoma. A second case in the ward at the same time, with an obscure doubtful tumor in the left hypochondria, de-veloped a painful nodular subcutaneous growth midway between the navel and the left margin of the ribs. " Alvarez 2 also called attention to examination of the umbilicus for metastasis from gastric cancer, and recently Walters, Gray and Priestly,3 referring to carcinoma of the stomach, stated: "In an occasional case, a metastatic nodule may be palpated or even seen in the umbilicus. When