17. Adenocarcinoma of the gall bladder with multiple liver metastases

Organ: Liver and gallbladder

Gallbladder cancer prep front

Description:

The gallbladder bears signs of chronic cholecystitis – it’s whitish, thickened, fibrotic and adhered to the liver.

The liver contains many metastases. They’re visible as large, greyish foci on the front and on the back of the preparation.

Diagnosis: Adenocarcinoma of the gallbladder with metastasis to the liver

Causes:

• Cholelithiasis -> chronic cholecystitis -> adenocarcinoma

Theory:

Gallbladder cancer prep back

Gallbladder adenocarcinoma is a type of extrahepatic cholangiocellular carcinoma. The cell type of origin is the cholangiocyte, the cell type that lines the bile ducts.

On this preparation is there actually no macroscopic sign of tumor on the gallbladder itself, however because we can see metastases on the liver can we know that there is actually a gallbladder tumor here.