A Case of Skin Metastasis Manifested as a Presenting Sign of Pancreatic Tail Cancer

ABSTRACT

A 68-year-old male patient visited our clinic complaining of a single skin lesion on the left shoulder for 5 months. The lesion was a bluish to pigmented, bean-sized nodule. No subjective symptoms and signs accompanied it. Histologically, the tumor mass was composed tumor emboli in the vessels and moderately differentiated neoplastic glands lined by anaplastic cells. These findings were consistent with the metastatic adenocarcinoma. Abdominal sonography and CT scanning showed a mass at the tail of the pancreas. Therefore, we diagnosed this skin lesion as a metastatic adenocarcinoma originating from the pancreatic tail. We report herein a rare case of skin metastasis from pancreatic tail cancer, in which the cutaneous involvement was the first sign of the internal malignancy.