ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To analyze the clinical epidemiological characteristics of patients with gallbladder carcinoma recruited from 17 hospitals in five northwestern provinces of China (Shaanxi Province, Gansu Province, Qinghai Province, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region) from 2009 to 2013, and to summarize the clinical diagnosis and treatment data of gallbladder carcinoma. METHODS: Clinical information of 2379 patients with gallbladder carcinoma from 17 hospitals in five northwestern provinces of China was retrospectively collected and analyzed using the "Questionnaire for Gallbladder Carcinoma Patients in Northwestern Area of China." All information was verified with EpiData software and analyzed with SPSS 13.0 software. RESULTS: (1) Gallbladder carcinoma accounted for 2.7% (2379/86,609) of all biliary tract diseases during the study period, which was significantly higher than that from 1986 to 1998 (P < 0.001). (2) Gallbladder carcinoma was more prone to occur in elderly women. The male:female incidence ratio was 1.0:2.1, the average age of onset of disease was 63.7 ± 11.3 years, and the incidence was higher in farmers than in other occupational groups. (3) A total of 57.2% (1360/2379) of patients with gallbladder carcinoma also had gallstones. (4) Abdominal pain (1796/2379, 75.5%) and jaundice (727/2379, 30.6%) were the most common clinical manifestations, 81.2% (1527/1881) were positive in those receiving B ultrasound examinations and 90.7% (1567/1727) were positive in those undergoing computed tomography, and 64.5% (1124/1742) of patients with gallbladder carcinoma were positive for carbohydrate antigen (CA) 19-9. (5) The pathological type of gallbladder carcinoma was mainly moderately and poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma with a high degree of malignancy. At admission, 55.1% (1091/1981) of patients had stage IV cancer among patients with TNM staging information; 55.9% (1331/2379) had lymphatic metastasis, 29.7% (706/2379) had bile duct metastasis, and 53.1% (1263/2379) had liver metastasis. (6) A total of 283 patients (283/2379, 11.9%) had incidentally detected gallbladder carcinoma. (7) The rate of radical surgical resection was 30.4% (723/2379). CONCLUSION: The proportion of gallbladder carcinoma in biliary tract diseases in the northwestern area of China was significantly higher from 2009 to 2013 than from 1986 to 1998. Gallbladder carcinoma was common in older women and mainly diagnosed at an advanced stage. Compared with other surveys in different regions, the rate of metastasis in this survey was high, leading to a low resection rate. Populations at high risk should undergo B-ultrasound examinations at regular follow-up intervals to increase the rate of early diagnosis of gallbladder carcinoma.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: To explore clinicopathological features and effects of surgical treatment of squamous/adenosquamous carcinoma of the gallbladder. METHODS: We enrolled 411 patients who were surgically treated for gallbladder cancer in our hospital, including 10 with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), 24 with adenosquamous carcinoma (ASC), and 377 with adenocarcinoma (AC). The ASC-SCC group was compared with the AC group for clinicopathological features and surgical outcomes. RESULTS: The patients' average age was 61.4 years. Abdominal pain was the most common presenting symptom, and 67.6% of patients had gallstones. All patients had advanced-stage (T3/T4) carcinomas. The ASC-SCC group had significantly higher percentages of T4 disease (61.8%) and N1 nodal involvement (58.8%) than did the AC group (T4 disease: 34.0%, P = 0.001; N1 involvement: 39.0%, P = 0.02). Patients in the ASC-SCC group who underwent R0 resections had significantly better 1-year survival (30%) than those who underwent R1 or R2 resections (0%; P = 0.025), but lower 1-year survival rates than similar-staged patients in the AC group (69.3%; P = 0.016). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with gallbladder ASC-SCC were similar to those with AC in clinical characteristics, but tended to have more infiltration of multiple adjacent organs and lymphatic metastasis. Curative resection could give these patients better outcomes.
