Carcinoma of the gallbladder: patterns of presentation, prognostic factors and survival rate. An 11-year single centre experience.

BACKGROUND

This report examines the patterns of presentation, prognostic factors and survival rate of all patients with gallbladder cancer (GBC) evaluated at our tertiary academic hospital over an 11-year period.

METHODS

A retrospective review of a prospectively collected database of all patients with GBC presenting between January 1998 and December 2008 was performed.

RESULTS

102 GBC-patients were included: 69 women and 33 men (median age: 65,5 years). Forty-five patients presented with incidental gallbladder cancer (IGC) and 57 with nonincidental cancer (NIGC). Curative surgery rate was 84.4% for IGC and 29.8% for NIGC (p < 0.001). Five-year actuarial survival rate was 63.2% for patients with curative intent surgery and 0% for patients with palliative approach. Patients with IGC had a longer survival rate compared to patients with NIGC (median: 25.8 vs. 4.4 months, p < 0.0001). For patients with radical resection (42 patients), there was no difference between IGC and NIGC. The incidence of liver involvement was respectively 0%, 20.8%, 58.3%, 100% for pT1, pT2, pT3 and pT4 tumors. Univariate analysis showed that survival rate was significantly affected by perineural invasion, T, N and M-stage, R0 resection, liver involvement, CA-19.9. In multivariate analysis, liver involvement was the only independent factor.

CONCLUSIONS

Majority of patients with a potentially curable disease had IGC. Almost 80% of patients with NIGC presented with unresectable disease. For patients who underwent resection with curative intent, actuarial 5-year survival was 63.2%. Liver involvement was the only independent prognostic factor. All patients with IGC and a pT2 or more advanced T stage should undergo a second radical resection.