Lymphoepitheliomalike Carcinoma of the Gallbladder

We report a case of a lymphoepitheliomalike carcinoma arising in the gallbladder of a 60-year-old woman. The gallbladder wall was completely replaced with a tumor that extended into the adjacent liver parenchyma.The tumor was histologically and immunophenotypically indistinguishable from lymphoepithelioma of the nasopharynx, which is an undifferentiated malignant epithelial neoplasm that is histologically distinctive owing to a prominent reactive lymphoid infiltrate. It is believed that the Epstein-Barr virus may play a role in the pathogenesis of nasopharyngeal lymphoepitheliomas; however, our case in the gallbladder was not associated with of Epstein-Barr virus DNA. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first published case of a lymphoepitheliomalike carcinoma of the gallbladder. Int J Surg Pathol 4(3):00-00, 1997