Metastases to the skin

Fifty patients (26 men and 24 women) with cutaneous metastases were studied clinically and histologically. Analysis on the basis of the site of the primary tumor showed carcinoma of the lung and esophagus to be the commonest tumors responsible in men and carcinoma of the breast and ovaries the commonest in women. Metastases occurred in all areas of the skin with the chest wall the commonest site, especially in carcinoma of the breast. Most of the cutaneous metastases occurred after the primary malignancy was manifest and well advanced; only in two cases were they the presenting signs of the malignancy.