Mixed (composite) glandular-endocrine cell carcinoma of the gallbladder.

BACKGROUND: A mixed pattern of glandular and neuroendocrine elements is rare in tumours at any site within the gastrointestinal tract but particularly so in the gallbladder. CASE OUTLINE: A 72-year-old woman presented with abdominal pain and jaundice and was found to have a large mass in the fundus of the gallbladder.The mass was radically excised to include a wedge of liver and the hepatoduodenal lymph nodes. Histopathological examination of the resected gallbladder showed an invasive tumour composed of both adenocarcinoma and endocrine cell carcinoma, with apparent transitions between them. The patient received no further treatment and died two months later. DISCUSSION: There are 14 previous case reports of mixed adeno/endocrine carcinoma of the gallbladder. Histochemical similarities between the two neoplastic components of the present tumour would support their origin from a common precursor cell, but the alternative hypothesis of coincidental neoplastic change in two different cell types cannot be excluded.