A Case of Metastatic Pancreatic and Gallbladder Metastases of Thymic Carcinoid Resected 4 Years after Thymectomy

Kazuyuki Kawamoto, Keizo Ogasahara, Tomokazu Makino, Takeo Moriga, Katsuhiro Asonuma, Yasuo Yoshida, Tadashi Ito, Eiji Kii, Yukihiro Kouno and Hidenari Takasan

Department of Surgery, Kurashiki Central Hospital

We report a case of metastatic pancreas and gallbladder carcinoid of the thymus. A 74-year old woman who had undergone thymectomy for a thymic carcinoid 4 years earlier was found by abdominal computed tomography to have a tumor at the pancreas head about 2 cm in diameter. Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreaticography (MRCP) confirmed the tumor and dilatation of the distal main pancreatic duct. Pylorus-preserving pancreaticoduodenectomy was conducted under a preoperative diagnosis of pancreatic head cancer. Specimens showed 3 brownish tumors with an unclear margin at the pancreatic head about 1 to 2 cm in diameter and a tumor at the neck of the gallbladder about 1 cm in diameter. Pathologic findings for these tumors showed a marked resemblance to the thymic carcinoid resected 4 years earlier, so we diagnosed these tumors as metastases from the thymic carcinoid. Metastatic pancreatic tumors are rare and the very few cases offer little advice in the choice of surgical treatment.

Key words
thymic carcinoid, pancreatic metastasis, gallbladder metastasis

Reprint requests
Kazuyuki Kawamoto Department of Surgery, Kurashiki Central Hospital 1-1-1 Miwa, Kurashiki, 710-8602 JAPAN

Accepted
February 27, 2002

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