Diffuse Cutaneous Metastatic Lesions From an Ovarian Carcinoma

Compared with other organs, the skin is an infrequent site of carcinomatous metastasis from the inner organs. Kaufmann-Wolf1in 1913 collected 65 cases of this kind, and Bade2in 1939 found only 58 additional cases. Beck3cited several statistical studies to indicate the rare involvement of the skin by carcinomatous metastasis. According to Willis,4primary tumors in the following internal organs, in the order of frequency, may be responsible for distant lesions in the skin and subcutis: stomach, pancreas, kidney, urinary bladder, female genital tract, esophagus, Meckel's diverticulum and thymus. Metastatic carcinoma may occur on any area of the skin but appears most frequently on the chest, in the axilla, on the abdomen and in the perigenital region (Eller5). In many cases the area of the skin affected roughly corresponds in position with the location of the underlying internal tumor. Secondary growths may arise by