Laparoscopic cholecystectomy for melanoma metastatic to the gallbladder: is it an adequate surgical procedure? Report of a case and review of the literature

Abstract

Background: Only 2% to 4% of patients with melanoma will be diagnosed with gastrointestinal metastasis during the course of their disease. The most common sites of gastrointestinal metastases from melanoma include the small bowel (35%-67%), colon (9%-15%) and stomach (5%-7%), with a median survival of 6-10 months after surgery, and 18% survival at five years. Metastatic melanoma to the gallbladder is extremely rare and it is associated with a very poor prognosis.

Metastatic melanoma of the gallbladder: report of two cases and a review of the literature

“…Distant metastatic sites include skin and soft tissues, lung, liver, brain and gastrointestinal tract [2][3][4][5]14]. Among the gastrointestinal metastases, the most common sites are small bowel (35-67 %), colon (9-15 %) and stomach (5-7 %) [6]. The stage of the tumor is intricately related to long-term survival rate: 85-90 % of melanomas are clinically localized (stages 0-2) at the time of diagnosis, with a 5-year survival rate of more than 90 %.…”

“…A small percentage of patients (from 2 to 4 %) affected by cutaneous melanoma are diagnosed with gastrointestinal metastases and the most common sites are small bowel, colon and stomach, with a low overall survival rate [6]. Metastatic involvement of the gallbladder is rare and, when present, is often part of a widespread complex of metastases with a very poor prognosis [6,7].…”

Gallbladder metastasis secondary to gastric cancer as a first site of recurrence presented with acute cholecystitis: Case report and literature review

“…The patients with isolated GBM from the other malignancies generally present with obstructive jaundice if the tumor is located in the common bile duct or with upper abdominal pain mimicking symptomatic cholecystolithiasis (3,11,12), but asymptomatic cases were also reported (4,12). Our patient presented with right upper abdominal pain and fever without obstructive jaundice; therefore, our patient was compatible with the literature.…”

“…The physical examination was normal except for epigastric and left upper quadrant tenderness. Initial laboratory results were as follows: white blood cell (WBC) 7500/mm 3 , platelets 224000/mm 3 , hematocrit 36.2%, mean corpuscular volume (MCV) 80.4 fL, iron (Fe) 51 μ/dL, total iron binding capacity 251 μ/dl, ferritin 65.3 ng/ml, CA 19-9 18.9 U/mL (0-37), and CEA 1.46 ng/ml (0-3.4). Other laboratory values were within normal limits.…”

Metastasis to the gallbladder: A single-center experience of 20 cases in South Korea

“…In an analysis of 687 necropsies of patients with renal cell carcinoma, four cases had MGBs [3] . However, the data available on MGBs are only from autopsy series of certain malignancies such as melanoma or renal cell carcinoma, or reviews of a certain metastatic carcinoma to the GB such as melanoma [6,7] , or in the form of single case reports of tumors such as melanoma [8][9][10][11] , breast cancer [4] , and hepatocellular carcinoma [5] . Furthermore, there is limited data on the proportion of MGBs among GB malignancies.…”