Carcinoma of the cystic duct

Carcinoma of the cystic duct is a rare neoplasm, and we herein report four cases of carcinoma of the cystic duct. The patients consisted of a 69 year old and 71 year old woman and a 61 year old and 93 year old man. They complained of either abdominal pain or abdominal mass. All the tumors were microscopically well-differentiated adenocarcinoma, mostly limited to the wall, that showed no lymph node or distant metastasis. Three patients who had undergone resection were doing well 20 days, 67 months, and 125 months after the operation, respectively. These findings may suggest that not only the early development of symptoms caused by obstruction of the narrow lumen of the cystic duct, but also slow growth and late metastasis produce a favorable clinical course in patients with carcinoma of the cystic duct.