A 73-year-old man, suffering from seven years history of multiple nodules and swelling around the right orbit, visited us in June, 1993. Histologically, the tumor resembled to a metastatic adenocarcinoma because of the admixture of a lot of “signet ring cells”. But thorough systemic work up, including radiographic studies of the gastrointestinal tract, we failed to reveal any primary internal carcinoma. A wide resection was performed and the specimen was studied histochemically and ultrastructually. Although we could not determine the precise origin of the carcinoma, we concluded that our case was a primary infiltrated adenocarcinoma of the eyelids named “signet ring carcinoma of the eyelids”.
