A 66-year-old woman with cognitive impairment and advanced colon cancer was admitted to the acute geriatric ward due to a non-complicated pelvic fracture. She reported a painful mass in her navel, which had appeared a few months earlier. Examination showed a well-circumscribed, flashy, ulcerated mass about two centimetres in diameter in the umbilical area (Figure: Panel A). 

It was tender, firm, and tightly connected to internal abdominal structures. An abdominal CT scan displayed a large mass extending from the right colon to the umbilical area (Figure: Panel B), supporting the diagnosis of Sister Mary Joseph’s nodule - a rare metastasis of intraabdominal malignancy indicative of a poor survival prognosis. A week into her hospitalization, the patient collapsed and succumbed despite resuscitation efforts.