Non-umbilical cutaneous metastasis of a pancreatic adenocarcinoma

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma is one of the deadliest human malignancies with the majority of cases diagnosed late in the course of the disease. Cutaneous metastases originating from pancreatic cancer are rare. The most common site reported is the umbilicus. Non-umbilical cutaneous metastases are far less common with only a few cases reported in the literature. Our case involved a 43-year-old man with pancreatic carcinoma who was offered resection and a Whipple procedure was planned. Intraoperatively, the patient was found to have a widely metastatic disease not seen on preoperative imaging. Postoperatively, cutaneous metastasis in the scalp was discovered. Although rare, the recognition of non-umbilical cutaneous metastases of pancreatic adenocarcinoma can be of value because they can not only detect an underlying tumour but also guide management.