Occult gallbladder carcinoma presenting as a primary ovarian tumor in two women: two case reports and a review of the literature

Abstract

IntroductionThe ovary is a common site of metastasis from various organs. However, little is known about gallbladder carcinoma metastasizing to the ovaries and presenting as a primary ovarian tumor.Case presentationWe report two cases of a metastatic gallbladder carcinoma which mimicked a primary ovarian tumor in a 35-year-old and a 62-year-old North Indian woman. Clinically, both our patients presented with abdominal masses without obvious signs and symptoms related to gallbladder carcinoma. Radiology suggested the possibility of a primary ovarian tumor with chronic cholecystitis and cholelithiasis. The gross features also mimicked a primary malignant ovarian tumor in the first case and a benign mucinous neoplasm in the second case. Exact diagnoses could only be made after thorough sampling from both the ovaries and gallbladder.ConclusionsGallbladder carcinoma with metastasis to the ovaries can mimic both malignant and benign primary ovarian tumors. Extensive cystic change in the ovary due to metastasis from gallbladder carcinoma has rarely been reported. A high index of suspicion and thorough sampling are essential to avoid misdiagnosis in such cases.

Autotransplantation of cryopreserved ovarian tissue in cancer survivors and the risk of reintroducing malignancy: a systematic review

“…For tumours of other parts of the gastrointestinal tract, neither autotransplantation reports nor epidemiologic data were available. Nevertheless, ovarian involvement has been indicated in case reports describing patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (Oortman and Elliott, 1983;Young et al, 1992a, b;de Groot et al, 2000;Stippel et al, 2005;Montero et al, 2007;Lee et al, 2011;Benito et al, 2012), hepatoblastoma (Green and Silva, 1989) and bile duct or gallbladder carcinomas (Lashgari et al, 1992;Petru et al, 1992;Chang et al, 1997;Ayhan et al, 2001;Low et al, 2003;Miyagui et al, 2003;Garcia et al, 2004;Jain et al, 2006;Khunamornpong et al, 2007Khunamornpong et al, , 2008Lee et al, 2009;Kumar et al, 2010;Singh et al, 2010;Pusiol et al, 2011). Tumours of the small bowel and pancreatic tumours were also shown to have the capacity to metastasize to the ovaries (Roley et al, 1990;Tsuruchi et al, 1995;Loke et al, 1997;Dunsmore and Lovell, 1998;Wysocki et al, 2001;Yanai et al, 2003;Ayhan et al, 2005;Husain et al, 2006;Maekawa et al, 2010).…”

Occult Gallbladder Carcinoma Presenting as a Primary Ovarian Tumour: a Case Report and Review of Literature

“…The incidence of ovarian metastasis from different organs is nearly 5 to 15% [6]. Although Albores-Saavedra [14] has reported the incidence of gallbladder carcinoma metastasising to ovaries to be about 6%, a description of only few such cases could be found in the literature [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Seventy-five percent of patients with gallbladder cancer are older than 65 years [15].…”

“…Rarely, the metastasis may precede detection of the primary site and may present as an ovarian tumour [1]. Only few cases of metastasis from the gallbladder to ovaries have been reported in the literature [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Some of these cases were initially misdiagnosed as primary ovarian tumours.…”

Carcinoma Gall Bladder with Cardiac Metastasis Presenting as Liver Abscess: An Unusual Case

“…Prevalence of HCV infection in India is 1.3%. 2 Dermatological manifestations of HCV maybe a result of direct action of viral particles on keratinocytes, lymphocytes, antigen presenting cells and blood…”