2011 Volume 25 Issue 2 Pages 214-219
A 72-year-old woman was admitted with the complaint of abdominal pain and general fatigue. Percutaneous transhepatic gallbladder drainage was conducted with the diagnosis of acute cholecystitis, and cytodiagnosis of bile juice offered a strong suspicion of gallbladder carcinoma. Abdominal ultrasonography and computed tomography revealed a papillary tumor and diffuse thickness of the wall in the gallbladder. We performed an extended cholecystectomy with lymph node dissection. Histologically, the tumor was consisted of adenocarcinoma and sarcomatous tumor cells with a spindle shape and partial chondroid differentiation. Immunohistochemically, the sarcomatous elements was negative for an epithelial marker and positive for an interstitial marker. This histological evidence led to a definitive diagnosis of pure carcinosarcoma of the gallbladder. She is alive with no signs of recurrence 3 years after surgery. Carcinosarcoma of the gallbladder is very rare, so we report this case with a review of the literature.
