A Case of Endocrine Cell Carcinoma of the Gallbladder with Multiple Liver Metastasis

Ryunosuke Hase, Takasi Hara, Satoshi Takeyama, Akihiko Numata, Kouji Taira, Masaaki Nenohi, Noriyuki Ito, Makoto Kanda^* and Hiroyuki Kato^**

Department of Surgery, and Pathology^*, Asahikawa City Hospital, Department of Surgical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, Hokkaido University, Graduate School of Medicine^**

A 64-year-old woman, diagnosed to have gallbladder tumor from ultrasonographic findings, was admitted to our hospital. Computed tomography (CT) of the abdmen revealed thickening of the gallbladder wall. Ultimately we diagnosed it as gallbladder carcinoma, and performed pancreatoduodenectomy, resection of the liver S4a and S5, and partial resection of the transverse colon. Immunohistochemically and electron-microscopically it was diagnosed finally as endocrine cell carcinoma of the gallbladder. CT during arterial portography (CTAP) of the abdmen at postoperative 3 months revealed multiple liver metastases. Two courses of hepatic artery infusion of 5-fluorouracil, epirubicin and mitomycin (FAM) achieved complete remission of the hepatic tumors, which was seen on CT. However, the patient died from bone metastases at postoperative 1 year. Endocrine cell carcinoma of the gallbladder is a rare neoplasm, which quickly metastasizes to the liver and has poor prognosis. Hepatic artery infusion of FAM is one of the treatments for this disease.

Key words
endocrine cell carcinoma, gallbladder cancer, hepatic artery infusion

Reprint requests
Ryunosuke Hase Department of Surgery, Asahikawa City Hospital 1-1-65 Kinsei-cho, Asahikawa, 070-8610 JAPAN

Accepted
February 28, 2001

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