A Case of the Cholangiocellular Carcinoma that was Difficult to Distinguish from Tumor of Diaphragm

Hiroko Hayashi, Takayuki Nakazaki, Daisuke Hukuda, Masataka Jibiki, Hideki Taniguchi, Susumu Nakao and Osamu Takahara*

Department of Surgery and Department of Pathology*, Nisseki Nagasaki Genbaku Hospital

A 54-year-old woman admitted for back pain was found in abdominal CT to have a 5 cm low-density area at S1 and S7 of the liver. Abdominal MRI showed the tumor to be located mainly in the diaphragm, although part extended into the liver, necessitating right hepatic lobectomy and partial diaphragm resection. Pathologically, the tumor was poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma. Although we considered the tumor to be metastatic, we could not find the primary lesion, resulting in a diagnosis of cholangiocellular carcinoma with extrahepatic growth-a condition very rare in Japan.

Key words
cholangiocellular carcinoma, extrahepatic growth, extension into diaphragm

Reprint requests
Hiroko Hayashi Department of Pathology, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
1-12-4 Sakamoto, Nagasaki, 852-8523 JAPAN

Accepted
May 25, 2005

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