-Case Reports-

A Case of Biliary Cystadenocarcinoma with Intracystic Bleeding

Aya Tani¹, Hiroshi Yoshida¹, Yasuhiro Mamada¹, Nobuhiko Taniai¹, Zenya Naito² and Takashi Tajiri¹

¹Surgery for Organ Function and Biological Regulation, Graduate School of Medicine, Nippon Medical School
²Department of Integrative Pathology, Graduate School of Medicine, Nippon Medical School

Biliary cystadenocarcinomas are rare cystic tumors arising from the biliary epithelium. Symptoms vary and are sometimes absent. Most lesions are found incidentally during diagnostic radiologic procedures or surgical exploration for unrelated conditions. We describe an 80-year-old man with anemia due to intracystic bleeding. A computed tomographic scan showed a low-density hepatic lesion with thick, irregular walls and septa. Left lobectomy with cholecystectomy was performed. Histological examination revealed that the surgical specimen was a biliary cystadenocarcinoma. The concentrations of both carcinoembryonic antigen and CA19-9 were high in the cyst contents. The patient died of pneumonia 1 year 4 months after the operation, without the recurrence of cystadenocarcinoma.

J Nippon Med Sch 2008; 75: 293-297

Keywords
hepatobiliary cystadenocarcinoma, surgery, intracystic bleeding

Correspondence to
Aya Tani, Department of Surgery, Nippon Medical School, 1-1-5 Sendagi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8603, Japan
ayatani@nms.ac.jp

Received, February 27, 2008
Accepted, June 3, 2008