Case Report

Adrenal Metastasis from Gallbladder Cancer: Report of a Case and Review of Literature.

Mridula Shukla, Mohan Kumar and Manoj Pandey
World Journal of Surgical Medical and Radiation Oncology 2016, 5:1

Abstract

Background

Cancer of the gallbladder spreads primarily by local invasion and lymphatic spread, vascular metastasis is rare. Adrenal is a common site of metastasis from cancer of the lung, colon and renal carcinoma, however, metastasis from other cancers is rare.

Case presentation

A 32 year old woman presented with painless progressive jaundice and on imaging was found to have primary carcinoma of the gallbladder with liver invasion, lymphatic metastasis and adrenal mass. Fine needle cytology proved it to be a metastatic lesion from the gallbladder. Patient was treated with palliative chemotherapy.

Conclusions

Adrenal metastasis from cancer of the gallbladder is rare with only two cases being reported in literature previously. Solitary metastasis in resectable tumor should always be surgically removed, however, palliative care is recommended if primary tumor is locally advanced and surgically non resectable.

Key words

Gallbladder; adrenal; metastasis; adenocarcinoma; surgery; adrenalectomy; PET, cytology

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