Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2019 Aug 26;7(16):2302-2308.
doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v7.i16.2302.

Primary malignant melanoma of the biliary tract: A case report and literature review

Soledad Cameselle-García  1 , José Luis Fírvida Pérez  2 , María C Areses  2 , Jesús Daniel Fernández de Castro  3 , Juan Mosquera-Reboredo  4 , Jesús García-Mata  2
Affiliations
Case Reports

Primary malignant melanoma of the biliary tract: A case report and literature review

Soledad Cameselle-García et al. World J Clin Cases. .

Abstract

Background: Primary malignant melanoma of the biliary tract (MBT) is a rare condition whose diagnosis requires excluding a primary origin in another location. This paper reviews the most important characteristics of MBT cases published in the literature and reports a new case. The patient reported here is the first case of primary malignant melanoma of the biliary tract with pulmonary metastasis treated with immunotherapy. This patient remains disease-free 36 mo after the treatment of metastatic lung lesions.

Case summary: A 51-year-old man was admitted to the gastrointestinal department to study obstructive jaundice of a 1 wk clinical course. Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography revealed dilatation of the intrahepatic biliary tract and stenosis of the common hepatic duct. Given the suspicion of biliary tract neoplasia, cholecystectomy and resection of the common hepatic duct were performed with hepatic jejunostomy free of complications. Anatomo-pathological diagnosis was melanoma. After intervention, the patient was referred to the Department of Medical Oncology, where a primary origin was excluded in the skin, mucosa, and eyes. This confirmed diagnosis of primary biliary tract melanoma. Computed tomography was performed 12 mo after the procedure revealed several subcentimetric lung nodules. Wedge resection was performed. After confirming the diagnosis of pulmonary metastasis of primary melanoma of the biliary tract, the patient was started on immunotherapy with nivolumab. Tolerance to treatment was excellent. The patient remains disease-free 36 mo after the treatment of metastatic lung lesions.

Conclusion: The patient reported here is the first case of primary malignant melanoma of the biliary tract with lung metastases successfully treated with immunotherapy.

Keywords: Biliary tract; Case report; Immunotherapy; Malignant melanoma.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Primary melanoma of the biliary tract. A: The melanoma formed a polypoid mass that infiltrates the wall of the extrahepatic bile duct; B: At high magnification, some malignant melanocytes revealed finely granular cytoplasmic melanin; C: Tumour cells revealed strong immunopositivity for the HMB45 antigen.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Thoracic positron emission tomography/computed tomography scan showing metastatic nodules (arrows).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Thoracic positron emission tomography/computed tomography scan with no evidence of metastases.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Le Douarin NM. Cell migrations in embryos. Cell. 1984;38:353–360. - PubMed
    1. LElder DE, Massi D, Scolyer RA, Willemze R (editors) Lyon: IARC. 2018. WHO classifications of the skin tumours. 4th edition.
    1. Geller AC, Clapp RW, Sober AJ, Gonsalves L, Mueller L, Christiansen CL, Shaikh W, Miller DR. Melanoma epidemic: an analysis of six decades of data from the Connecticut Tumor Registry. J Clin Oncol. 2013;31:4172–4178. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rastrelli M, Tropea S, Rossi CR, Alaibac M. Melanoma: epidemiology, risk factors, pathogenesis, diagnosis and classification. In Vivo. 2014;28:1005–1011. - PubMed
    1. Welch HG, Black WC. Overdiagnosis in cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2010;102:605–613. - PubMed

Publication types