Xanthogranulomatous cholecystitis mimicking gallbladder carcinoma

doi:10.4240/wjgs.125633

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World Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery

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1948-9366

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Baishideng Publishing Group Inc, 7041 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 160, Pleasanton, CA 94566, USA

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Copyright: ©Author(s) 2026. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. No commercial re-use. See permissions. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc.

World J Gastrointest Surg. Nov 27, 2026; 18(11): 125633
Published online Nov 27, 2026. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.125633

Xanthogranulomatous cholecystitis mimicking gallbladder carcinoma

Ottavia Cicerone, Luigi Colletto, Benedetta Pellizzari, Asia Ciuffardi, Himeth Devnaka Samarawickrama Kodikarage, Mario Tushe, Gioacchino D’Ambrosio, Alessandro Vanoli, Marcello Maestri

Ottavia Cicerone, Luigi Colletto, Benedetta Pellizzari, Asia Ciuffardi, Himeth Devnaka Samarawickrama Kodikarage, Marcello Maestri, Department of Clinical-Surgical, Diagnostic and Pediatric Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia 27100, Italy

Ottavia Cicerone, Luigi Colletto, Benedetta Pellizzari, Asia Ciuffardi, Marcello Maestri, General Surgery Unit I, Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo, Pavia 27100, Italy

Mario Tushe, Alessandro Vanoli, Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Pavia, Pavia 27100, Italy

Mario Tushe, Gioacchino D’Ambrosio, Alessandro Vanoli, Department of Pathological Anatomy, Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo, Pavia 27100, Italy

Author contributions: Cicerone O, Colletto L, Pellizzari B, Ciuffardi A, and Samarawickrama Kodikarage HD contributed to writing of original draft; Tushe M, D’Ambrosio G, and Vanoli A contributed to figure preparation and reference screening; Vanoli A and Maestri M contributed to writing - review and editing; Cicerone O and Maestri M contributed to conceptualization and study design; Maestri M contributed to project administration. All authors approved the final version to publish.

AI contribution statement: A large language model was used to assist with language editing and improve readability (ChatGPT).

Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.

Corresponding author: Marcello Maestri, MD, PhD, Professor, General Surgery Unit I, Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo, P.le Golgi 19, Pavia 27100, Italy. m.maestri@smatteo.pv.it

Received: July 14, 2026
Revised: August 10, 2026
Accepted: September 21, 2026
Published online: November 27, 2026
Processing time: 123 Days and 10.1 Hours

Core Tip

Core Tip: Xanthogranulomatous cholecystitis is a benign inflammatory disease that may closely mimic gallbladder carcinoma, creating a risk of either unnecessary radical surgery or delayed cancer treatment. No single clinical, laboratory, or imaging feature reliably separates the two conditions. Diagnostic confidence improves when clinical findings and multimodal imaging features are interpreted. Frozen-section analysis, nodal assessment, safe cholecystectomy with early conversion or bail-out procedures when necessary and delayed oncologic resection after definitive histological assessment in unresolved cases may offer the best compromise between oncologic adequacy and avoidance of overtreatment.