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Review
. 2006 Jul 14;12(26):4259-61.
doi: 10.3748/wjg.v12.i26.4259.

Primary melanoma of the gallbladder: does it exist? Report of a case and review of the literature

Michail Safioleas  1 , Emmanouil Agapitos, Konstantinos Kontzoglou, Michail Stamatakos, Panagiotis Safioleas, George Mouzopoulos, Alkiviadis Kostakis
Affiliations
Review

Primary melanoma of the gallbladder: does it exist? Report of a case and review of the literature

Michail Safioleas et al. World J Gastroenterol. .

Abstract

With the occasion of a case of malignant melanoma of the gallbladder, which appeared to be primary, we have reviewed the literature and the result of this research was that primary melanoma of the gallbladder remains a questionable medical entity. Only few cases of both primary and metastatic gallbladder melanoma have been reported so far, and the only agreement is that surgery is the mainstay treatment. The role of adjuvant chemotherapy, hormonotherapy or immunotherapy for both primary and metastatic disease remains undefined.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Ultrasound of melanoma of gallbladder.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Histological appearance of melanoma of gallbladder stained with HE.× 400.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Neoplastic cells immunostained with anti-HMB-45 antibodies. × 400.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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