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Gallbladder cancer is one of the most malignant and rapidly progressing cancers of the digestive system. Most patients see a doctor when the tumor is at an advanced stage of development, which means that there is practically no chance of a cure. This is the case, inter alia, because patients ignore the first symptoms of the disease. What are the causes and symptoms of gallbladder cancer? What is the treatment? What's the prognosis?

Gallbladder canceris a malignant neoplasm of a pear-shaped organ, which is a reservoir of bile secreted by the liver, which helps digest fat in the duodenum. Gallbladder cancer is one of the most common neoplasms developing in the bile ducts (it accounts for 80-95% of these tumors) and the fifth most common cancer of the gastrointestinal tract.

Gallbladder cancer is one of the most malignant cancers of the digestive system

The risk of developing gallbladder cancer increases with age. In most cases, women hear the diagnosis more often than men. The situation is different in Poland, where men get sick almost twice as often as women. Moreover, in our country, as well as in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the incidence of gallbladder cancer is the highest in Europe. The incidence in Poland is about 6 people per 100,000 per year (in other countries the average is 2 per 100,000).

Gallbladder cancer - causes and risk factors

One of the most common risk factors for the development of gallbladder cancer is gallbladder calculi for many years (it is found in 80-90% of patients with this cancer). The risk of developing cancer depends on the size of the deposits - if their diameter exceeds 3 cm, the risk of cancer is ten times greater than with a 1 cm diameter.

Other factors that increase your risk of developing gallbladder cancer are:

  • some polyps of the gallbladder;
  • porcelain gallbladder (saturated with calcium s alts);
  • chronic vesiculitis;
  • chronic vesiculo-intestinal fistula;
  • calcification of the vesicle wall;
  • Fibromatosis of the follicular wall;
  • ulcerative colitisthick;
  • presence of a bile duct cyst;
  • anomalies of the common bile-pancreatic canal;
  • parasitic diseases of the bladder and biliary tract;

The risk group also includes people employed in the rubber industry (working in the production of rubber shoes or tire vulcanization). In addition, people working in the textile and paper industry are at risk.

Gallbladder cancer - symptoms

The first symptoms of gallbladder cancer are not typical and ignored by patients. The most common symptoms are associated with the concurrent, in most cases, gallstone disease. However, the characteristic biliary colic attack (perceived as a sudden, paroxysmal, sharp, extremely severe epigastric pain) in gallbladder cancer is rare. The patient usually complains of chronic distension, discomfort in the upper right abdomen.

Symptoms that appear late in the development of gallbladder cancer include:

  • dull pain in the upper abdomen, on the right, which often radiates right to the spine and interscapular area;
  • palpable lump in the right hypochondrium;
  • anorexia and related weight loss;
  • vomiting;
  • jaundice (and related symptoms - itchy skin that is yellowish, dark urine, and light and discolored stools) - occurs in about 30-60% of patients;

Gallbladder cancer - diagnosis

In the case of suspicion of gallbladder cancer, imaging tests are the basis for diagnostics. They allow for the diagnosis of cancer at an early stage of development, of course, if the patient is referred for them early enough.

Gallbladder cancer is usually diagnosed by chance, e.g. when examining a gallbladder removed for urolithiasis

Abdominal ultrasound (USG) is usually performed first. The doctor may also order computed tomography, thanks to which you can assess the advancement of the disease process. Occasionally, it may be necessary to perform magnetic resonance imaging of the bile ducts (MRCP) and reverse cholangiopancreatography - tests that can show the presence of middle biliary obstruction, most often associated with cancer infiltration.

Gallbladder cancer - treatment

The only effective way to completely cure gallbladder cancer is surgery to excise the gallbladder (calledcholecystectomy ). If there is an infiltrationliver, during the operation it is possible to perform a partial excision of this organ and lymph nodes. Sometimes it is necessary to remove the pancreas and duodenum (when the infiltration is very large). However, surgery can only be performed on patients whose cancer is in an early stage of development.

Unfortunately, most patients see an advanced tumor doctor, which makes surgery impossible. Then only palliative treatment remains (alleviating the symptoms of the disease in terminally ill patients). In these patients, a procedure is usually performed, during which a prosthesis is inserted into the bile ducts narrowed by the tumor. Its task is to expand them, and thus - alleviate the symptoms of the disease.

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Category:

Oncology