Carcinoma of Gall bladder with distant metastasis to breast parenchyma. Report of a case and review of literature.

BACKGROUND: Gall bladder carcinoma is one of the most common cancers in India. Gall bladder cancer with metastasis to the breast is very rare. Herein we intend to report a case of carcinoma gall bladder with breast metastasis and a short review of the literature. METHODS: This report describes an interesting and unusual case of gall bladder carcinoma presenting with breast metastasis. CASE REPORT: A 38-year lady presented with complaints of right abdominal pain. Bilateral breast examination showed 2×2cm palpable lump in the upper outer quadrant of the left breast. Contrast-enhanced CT of the abdomen and pelvis showed circumferential thickening of gall bladder with the loss of fat plane with the adjacent liver parenchyma. Biopsy from the breast lump was reported as metastatic adenocarcinoma compatible with primary in the gall bladder. Whole body PET-CT showed gall bladder mass with abdominal and pelvic nodes with metastasis to liver, left breast, C7 vertebral body and left supra-clavicular node. She was diagnosed to have disseminated carcinoma gall bladder with liver, breast and supraclavicular nodal metastasis. She received palliative chemotherapy with gemcitabine and carboplatin and radiotherapy to C7 vertebra. After receiving 3 cycles of chemotherapy, chemotherapy was changed to the second line with single agent capecitabine. In spite of two lines of chemotherapy, she succumbed to disease progression and expired. CONCLUSION: There are limited examples of gall bladder adenocarcinoma with simultaneous metastasis to breast in the English literature. Our case showed an unusual dissemination of gall bladder cancer.

Management of Locally Advanced Carcinoma Oesophagus with Radiation/Chemoradiation: Single Institute Experience.

PURPOSE: Oesophageal malignancy is the fourth commonest cancer which has a very poor outcome. In the management of oesophageal malignancy, radiation therapy is underutilized by many physicians due to feared complications though its role is well proven in literature. This study brings the role of radiation therapy in terms of loco-regional and distant relapse. This study characterizes demographic characteristics, treatment modality and the impact of these on recurrence-free survival of locally advanced carcinoma oesophagus. METHOD: In a retrospective analysis over a period of 24 months, 28 patients diagnosed to have locally advanced oesophageal malignancy were included. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy was carried out in 4 patients and concurrent chemoradiotherapy in 18 patients. Among the 28 patients, 7 patients who were operable and fit underwent surgery 6-8 weeks after completion of the planned neoadjuvant therapy. All patients received concurrent chemoradiation for a period of 5 weeks with platinum and/or taxane-based chemotherapy. RESULTS: With a median follow-up of 12 months, loco-regional recurrence and distant relapse were substantially less with 14 and 10 %, respectively. The Kaplan-Meier recurrence-free survival was 60 % at 24 months. All patients who had surgery as a part of the multimodality management were disease free at the last follow-up. CONCLUSION: In locally advanced oesophageal malignancy, radiation therapy plays an important role in downsizing the tumour for operability or can also be utilized as the sole modality of management.