Irving Dardick
Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology
University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
History:
A 29-year-old woman had been referred from Antigua because of
undiagnosed edema of the right leg. This had gradually increased
over a 3 month period and recently multiple "swellings"
had been noted in the right groin. There was a past history of
a partial gastrectomy, which she had been told was for a gastric
ulcer.
Light microscopy:
One of the skin nodules in the right groin was biopsied. Within
the dermis was an infiltrating adenocarcinoma (Fig 1). The tumor
was composed of small gland-like structures, which in many cases
were lined by mucus-secreting epithelial cells; an occasional
signet-ring type tumor cell was present (Fig. 2).
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| Figure 1. Skin biopsy with many glandular structures infiltrating the dermis. | Figure 2. Higher power micrograph showing that some of the glands are lined by mucus-secreting cells and a few signet-ring type cells are also present (arrows). |
Electron microscopy was done as part of this investigation.
