Abstract

Melanoma is an aggressive malignant tumor that originates from melanocytes and most commonly occurs on the skin. Dominantly metastasize to regional lymph nodes, in the brain and lungs and rarely in the gastrointestinal (GI) system. The aim of this report is to present a rare case of metastasis of cutaneous malignant melanoma in the gallbladder, discovered 10 months after excision of the primary melanoma of the skin. A45-year-old patient was hospitalized in our hospital due to abdominal pain in right upper quadrant and nausea lasting for 7 days. An intraluminal substrate was found in the gallbladder with computed tomography and later a CT guied biopsy was performed on it, thus proving a metastatic deposit of primary malignant melanoma. Metastatic deposits in the gallbladder are extremely rare finding, and 238 cases have been described in the literature.

Highlights

  • Cutaneous melanoma is an aggressive disease, which arises from melanocytes, a type of cells found in the epidermis, uvea, meninges, intestinal tract, upper respiratory tract, and the regional lymph nodes

  • Patients diagnosed with skin melanoma have rear GI metastases only 2-4% [8], most common sites for GI metastases are small bowel (35-65%), colon (5-9%) and stomach (5-7%) [1, 2]

  • Cutaneous metastatic melanoma to the gallbladder is rarely found during patients life, 5-year survival is reported in only 15% of the diagnosed [9], that’s why most of the statistics come from autopsy reports that range the incidence of this metastatic disease from 15 to 20% [10]

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Summary

Introduction

Cutaneous melanoma is an aggressive disease, which arises from melanocytes, a type of cells found in the epidermis, uvea, meninges, intestinal tract, upper respiratory tract, and the regional lymph nodes. Is less than 5% of all skin cancer cases, but it has extremely high morbidity and mortality due to its high tendency to metastàsize throughout the body [1,2,3,4]. In 2–4% of patients with cutaneous melanoma that are diagnosed with gastrointestinal metastases, mostly affected parts are small bowel, colon, and stomach [1, 2]. Metastatic involvement of the gallbladder is rare, and is often part of a complex of metastases in other parts of the body with a very poor prognosis and non-specific symptoms. According to recent literature data - there is an increased number of patients with diagnosed skin melanoma that metastasized in the gallbladder

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