The weird ball filled with blood of a woman coming out of her belly button was a cancer

Ovarian cancer was diagnosed in a 73-year-old woman after a strange red ball escaped her belly button.

The woman – who was not named – went to the hospital when the "umbilical nodule" became painful and reached 2 cm over four months.

Analyzes later revealed that she was also suffering from an 11 x 11 cm tumor in the pelvis, which had spread to the belly button.

The red bump – known as Sister Mary Joseph's nodule – can occur with ovarian cancer, but it is "relatively rare," doctors said.

The patient, originally from Spain, has fully recovered after undergoing chemotherapy and surgery to remove the mbad.

Ovarian cancer was diagnosed in a 73-year-old woman after a strange red ball escaped her belly button (photo). He became taller in four months and started bleeding

The unnamed patient underwent scans of her abdomen. The top arrow points to the red size – known as Sister Mary Joseph's nodule – in the belly button. The lower arrows show a tumor of 11 x 11 cm – 9.5 cm deep – in the pelvis. She was later diagnosed with cancer

The woman went to A & E two days after the bump in her belly began to bleed.

She was treated by Dr. Javier Barambio, a specialist in general surgery and digestive system at Fundacion Jimenez Diaz University Hospital in Madrid.

During the examination, the nodule was painful and firm to the touch, doctors wrote in a case report published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The tests revealed a pelvic mbad – 9.5 cm deep – as well as fluids in his abdomen and cancerous cells in his peritoneum.

The peritoneum is a thin layer of tissue that lines the inside of the abdomen and its organs, such as the liver.

Sister Mary Joseph's nodule biopsies and pelvic mbad confirmed that the patient had ovarian cancer.

Dr. Barambio told Live Science that she was now free from the disease and in good health.

A nodule of Sister Mary Joseph protrudes from the belly button and may be a sign of severe or metastatic cancer, according to Stanford Medicine.

It is most likely to occur with gastrointestinal forms – such as the intestines or pancreas – or gynecological – such as ovarian and uterine forms -.

The cause of the nodule is unclear, but it is thought that the cancer cells spread to the navel through the peritoneum, lymphatic system or circulation.

It is also unclear to what extent the size is common, it is usually a sign of advanced cancer of poor prognosis.

The nodule is named after the American nurse Sister Mary Joseph, who reported it for the first time in 1929.

Why ovarian cancer is called a "silent killer"

About 80% of ovarian cancer cases are diagnosed at advanced stages of the disease.

At the time of diagnosis, 60% of ovarian cancers have already spread to other parts of the body, bringing the five-year survival rate from 90% to 30% at the early stage.

The diagnosis is so late because it is in the pelvis, according to Dr. Ronny Drapkin, an badociate professor at the University of Pennsylvania, who has been studying the disease for more than two decades.

"The pelvis is like a bowl, so a tumor can become quite big before it becomes noticeable," Dr. Drapkin told Daily Mail Online.

The first symptoms of ovarian cancer are gastrointestinal because tumors can start to pressurize.

When a patient complains of gastrointestinal discomfort, doctors are more likely to focus on diet changes and on other causes than to suggest ovarian cancer screening.

Dr. Drapkin said that it is usually only after a patient has suffered persistent gastrointestinal symptoms that he undergoes screening revealing cancer.

"It is often said that ovarian cancer is a silent killer because it has no early symptoms, whereas in fact, it has symptoms, they are simply very and could be caused by other factors, "he said.

"One of the things I tell women is that no one knows your body as well as you do. If you feel that something is wrong, something is probably not right. & # 39;