Isolated gallbladder metastatic melanoma presenting as biliary colic

Background: Malignant melanoma is the most common cancer to metastasize to the gastrointestinal tract. Only 2–4% of patients with melanoma will be diagnosed with gastrointestinal metastasis during the course of their disease. Gallbladder metastasis is rarely the first site of recurrence (ca. 15% of all gastrointestinal metastases) and is associated with a very poor prognosis.
Case Report: The case of a 53-year-old man with a metastatic gallbladder melanoma is reported who presented with a clinical history of symptoms that mimicked chronic cholecystitis with epigastric and right hypochondrial pain until the development of acute cholecystitis.
Conclusions: This case emphasizes the need for awareness of the possibility of gallbladder involvement in melanoma patients and underlines the necessity of meticulous investigation of unclear lesions of the gallbladder and biliary tree in patients with a past history of malignant melanoma.

Keywords: malignant melanoma, Metastasis, gallbladder