Sister Mary Joseph’s nodule: From the history to the images. A case-based literature review [Nódulo de la hermana María José: De la historia a las imágenes. Una revisión de la literatura basada en casos]

Abstract

Sister Mary Joseph’s nodule refers to a palpable nodule bulg­ing into the umbilicus as result of a malignant cancer in the abdomen or pelvis. It is associated with multiple peri­toneal metastases and usually indicates an advanced stage of disease with a poor prognosis. Most cases are metastatic adenocarcinoma malignancies. The most common primary sites are the gastrointestinal tract (Gastric, Colonic and Pan­creas) that accounts for about a half of the underlying sources (52%) and gynecologic (ovarian and endometrial cancer, 28%). This article describes Sister Joseph`s nodule, with a brief overview from history to imaging features in computed tomography.