Carcinosarcoma of the gallbladder: report of a case

Gallbladder carcinosarcoma is one of the rarest subsets of gallbladder malignancies. To date, only 34 cases have been reported in the English literature. Therefore the knowledge and experience regarding this disease is limited. This report describes a 70-year-old male patient who was diagnosed by documenting the epithelial and mesenchymal components with histopathological and immunohistochemical methods, and treated by a radical cholecystectomy. The pediculated polypoid tumor had filled the lumen, originating from the gallbladder fundus. The tumor infiltrated the surrounding connective and adipose tissue overlapping the muscular layer of its primary site, but had not perforated the serosa nor invaded the liver. The patient, who was treated only surgically, has remained healthy after 54 months of follow-up, which is the longest documented survival for this disease. This case indicates that curative treatment of a tumor confined to the gallbladder without liver or serosa invasion, or lymph node involvement, is therefore possible.