Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Oct 26, 2019; 7(20): 3358-3363
Published online Oct 26, 2019. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v7.i20.3358
Sister Mary Joseph’s nodule in endometrial carcinoma: A case report
Yang Li, Peng Guo, Bin Wang, Yi-Tao Jia
Yang Li, Bin Wang, Yi-Tao Jia, Third Department of Oncology, Hebei General Hospital, Shijiazhuang 050051, Hebei Province, China
Yang Li, North China University of Science and Technology, Tangshan 063000, Hebei Province, China
Peng Guo, Department of Orthopedics, The Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang 050000, Hebei Province, China
Author contributions: Li Y and Jia YT designed the case report; Guo P performed the research; Li Y and Wang B collected patient data; Li Y and Jia YT wrote the paper; the final version was approved by all authors.
Informed consent statement: The patient in this case report has voluntarily signed an informed consent form.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no potential conflict of interest relevant to this report.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yi-Tao Jia, MD, Professor, Department of Oncology, Hebei General Hospital, 348 Heping West Road, Shijiazhuang 050051, Hebei Province, China. jiayitao99@163.com
Telephone: +86-13503113385 Fax: +86-311-85989696
Received: July 16, 2019
Peer-review started: July 21, 2019
First decision: August 2, 2019
Revised: August 11, 2019
Accepted: September 11, 2019
Article in press: September 11, 2019
Published online: October 26, 2019
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Sister Mary Joseph’s nodule (SMJN) is rare and may occur independently or simultaneously with malignant tumors in the abdominal cavity. It has a poor prognosis. Endometrial carcinoma is the most common malignant tumor in the upper segment of the female reproductive tract; however, it rarely occurs with SMJN. We here report a case of endometrial carcinoma with SMJN.

CASE SUMMARY

A 75-year-old woman was diagnosed with endometrial cancer > 2 years ago. After multiple cycles of chemotherapy, an obvious but painless umbilical mass was detected 2 wk before admission. The patient did not undergo surgical treatment but received chemotherapy, which was different from previous chemotherapy, for three consecutive cycles after discovery of umbilical metastases. Currently, the umbilical metastatic tumor has reduced, and the quality of life of the patient has significantly improved.

CONCLUSION

Once the umbilical mass is found, the possibility of SMJN should be considered. We should also take into account the poor prognosis of endometrial carcinoma complicated with umbilical metastasis, especially in patients with advanced tumors, and it is important to choose an appropriate treatment.

Keywords: Endometrial cancer, Sister Mary Joseph’s nodule, Umbilical metastasis, Chemotherapy, Surgery, Case report

Core tip: We report a rare case of endometrial carcinoma with Sister Mary Joseph’s nodule (SMJN). After three cycles of systemic chemotherapy, the umbilical metastatic tumor was reduced, and the quality of life of the patient was significantly improved. We emphasized the poor prognosis of endometrial carcinoma complicated with umbilical metastasis, especially in patients with advanced tumors. The pathway of umbilical metastasis of malignant tumor was discussed. Combined with other reports, we also analyzed the appropriate treatment of malignant tumors with SMJN.