Refractory celiac disease type 1 (RC1) and associated primary sclerosing cholangitis in the stage of advanced malnutrition were diagnosed as late as at the age 67-years in a female with family history of gluten intolerance and mental depression since early adult age. Increasing values of oncomarkers (CA19-9, CA125) in combination with the results of imaging methods (MRCP, CT/PET) admitted the possibility of a complicating cholangiogenic carcinoma.
This finding was not confirmed at postmortem examination. However, this possibility restricted the therapeutic modalities recommended for RC1.
The specificity of oncomarkers may be probably influenced more extensively than usual in an advanced involvement of the immune system with two diseases of similar etiology.