Metachronous double cancer of the gallbladder and pancreas associated with pancreaticobiliary maljunction

A 50-year-old Japanese woman complained of abdominal and back pain. Ten years previously she had undergone cholecystectomy, choledochectomy, and Roux-en-Y choledochojejunostomy for gallbladder cancer associated with pancreaticobiliary maljunction without bile duct dilatation. On the present admission, ultrasonography (US) and computed tomography (CT) demonstrated a large mass, 60 mm in size, in the pancreatic tail. Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) showed obstruction of the main pancreatic duct in the tail of the pancreas and revealed that the pancreatic duct was joined to the bile duct 25 mm above the papilla of Vater. The patient underwent distal pancreatectomy, splenectomy, left adrenalectomy, and partial gastrectomy. Histological examination revealed moderately differentiated ductal adenocarcinoma that had invaded to the proper muscle of the stomach. Double cancer of the gallbladder and pancreas in a patient with pancreaticobiliary maljunction is rare. Although the etiology of cancer of the pancreas associated with pancreaticobiliary maljunction is unclear, we should pay close attention to the pancreas as well as the biliary tract during the long-term follow-up of patients with pancreaticobiliary maljunction after they have undergone a choledochojejunostomy.