2022 Volume 36 Issue 2 Pages 158-165
We could observe the growth process of a gallbladder adenosquamous carcinoma from occurrence to resection. Two years ago, we encountered a 79-year-old woman having a gallbladder polyp with 3.9mm diameter. We found growth of the polyp to the diameter of 24mm during about two years, which gave us the tumor volume doubling time of 111 days. Under the presumptive diagnosis of gallbladder cancer, she underwent surgery, and the pathology of the tumor was adenosquamous carcinoma. Among gallbladder cancers, adenosquamous carcinoma is associated with extremely poor prognosis due to its rapid growth. However, the growth was rather retarded in this case suggesting that the growth might be dependent on the proportion of squamous component in the tumor. What this means is that some cases of adenosquamous carcinoma might not show rapid growth. Therefore, the complete resection of the gallbladder might be suffice for such adenosquamous carcinoma just as adenocarcinoma.
