Review of the articles focused on gallbladder cancer / 中华消化外科杂志

ABSTRACT

This is a series of four papers on "Gallbladder Cancer" written by the most famous hepatobiliary surgeons and oncologists in China. The titles of the papers are ( 1 )" Preoperative management of patients with suspected gallbladder cancer"by CHEN Wei and LIANG Li-jian; (2)"Selection of surgical procedures for gallbladder cancer" by PENG Shu-you and HONG De-fei; (3) "Diagnosis and treatment of incidental gallbladder cancer" by JIANG Xiao-qing and QIU Ying-he; (4)"Comprehensive management of gallbladder cancer" by WANG Jian-dong and QUAN Zhi-wei. These papers emphasize on the following important points on gallbladder cancer (1)Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is absolutely contraindicated when gallbladder cancer is known or suspected pre-operatively; patients with a pre-operative suspicion of gallbladder cancer should undergo laparotomy, exploration and cholecystectomy after proper pre-operative assessment; (2)With the exception of Tis and T1a tumors, all patients with resectable gallbladder cancer should receive radical cholecystectomy, and a R0 resection should be aimed at; ( 3 ) For patients whose cancer is an incidental finding on pathological review, a second radial resection should be carried out as soon as possible, except for Tis and T1a diseases;(4) There is very little role for chemotherapy and radiotherapy in the adjuvant or palliative treatment of gallbladder cancer; (5)Surgery is the only curative treatment for gallbladder cancer.