Successful treatment of lymph node metastases recurring from gallbladder cancer.
A 66-year-old woman who had undergone cholecystectomy for the treatment of gallbladder cancer 5 years and 10 months previously was referred to our center due to increased carbohydrate antigen (CA)19-9. Increased CA19-9 (136U/ml) was the only abnormality detected on initial examination, and, despite various tests, clear signs of recurrence could not be detected. Subsequently, the patient was followed. Six months after the initial examination, dynamic computerized tomography confirmed lymphadenopathy. The results of fluoro-deoxy-glucose positron emission tomography suggested lymph node metastasis of the gallbladder cancer, and after consideration of the site of recurrence and the length of time between the primary surgery and detection of recurrence, the patient underwent extrahepatic bile duct resection and lymphadenectomy. Levels of CA19-9 normalized postoperatively, and, at the time of writing (26 months postoperatively), blood tests and diagnostic imaging revealed no signs of recurrence.
Tasaki
Kentaro
K
Division of Surgery, Chiba Cancer Center, Chiba 260-8717, Japan.
Yamamoto
Hiroshi
H
Watanabe
Kazuo
K
Asano
Takehide
T
Honda
Ichiro
I
Watanabe
Satoshi
S
Nagata
Matsuo
M
Soda
Hiroaki
H
Shimizu
Yasuhito
Y
Tohma
Takayuki
T
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000097:blood / Q000401:mortality / Q000556:secondary* / Q000601:surgery*; D000368:Aged; D018395:CA-19-9 Antigen / Q000097:blood; D002763:Cholecystectomy; D005260:Female; D005706:Gallbladder Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000401:mortality / Q000556:secondary* / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008875:Middle Aged; D013997:Time Factors
D018395:CA-19-9 Antigen