Functioning Acinous Cell Carcinoma of the Pancreas Accompanied With Widespread Focal Fat Necrosis

SOME MALIGNANT tumors may carry on, in varying degree, the functions of the tissue from which they arise. By virtue of such behavior they produce certain symptoms and signs which facilitate their recognition. It is not generally recognized that some functioning tumors of the pancreatic acini may also give rise to a peculiar clinical syndrome which is characterized by widespread focal fat necrosis. Such a case has been observed recently at the Evanston Hospital (service of Dr. A. R. Colwell). Reports of four nearly identical cases are related to the present. REPORT OF A CASE A 59 year old white executive entered the Evanston Hospital, on Nov. 24, 1948, complaining of painful joints in the toes and fingers and tender nodes in the skin of the right leg. One month before admission pain and swelling appeared in the distal half of the left great toe, and two weeks later the