Extramedullary Plasmacytoma Mimicking Pancreatic Cancer: An Unusual Presentation

Abstract

Multiple myeloma is a plasma cell tumor that homes to and expands in the bone marrow and that, despite the new available drugs, remains incurable. Extramedullary plasmacytoma is a not frequent manifestation during the natural history of multiple myeloma and is frequently associated with plasma cell bone marrow infiltration. The most common locations for an EMP include the gastrointestinal tract, pleura, testis, skin, peritoneum, liver, endocrine glands, and lymph nodes. Primary involvement of the gallbladder fossa is exceedingly rare. In this report, we describe a patient with multiple myeloma who achieved a clinical and serological remission after autologous transplant but progressed rapidly at extramedullary site mimicking a second cancer (i.e., pancreatic or biliary cancer). In this case, the extramedullary localization was refractory to standard therapy, differently from bone marrow localization, but responded to lymphoma-like therapy. In this patient (i) the particular site of developing plasmacytoma is the gallbladder fossa, (ii) the timing of onset of this neoplasm is immediately after autologous transplant, and (iii) its disjunction from primary myeloma is that it appears in clinical and serological remission phase which may be confounding during the diagnostic approach simulating a different tumor (solid tumor).