Adenosquamous carcinoma of the gallbladder warrants resection only if curative resection is feasible

Adenosquamous/squamous cell carcinoma of the gallbladder generally has been considered a lethal disease. The objective of this study was to clarify the effectiveness of resection for patients with adenosquamous/squamous cell carcinoma of the gallbladder.

Twenty-nine patients who underwent resection for either adenosquamous carcinoma (n = 28 patients) or squamous cell carcinoma (n = 1 patient) were analyzed retrospectively. Sixteen patients underwent radical resection, whereas the other patients underwent primary tumor resection alone. To elucidate the factors that influenced postresectional survival, 10 variables (age, gender, presence or absence of gallstones, size of the primary tumor, lymphatic vessel invasion, blood vessel invasion, perineural invasion, TNM stage, residual tumor status, and type of resection) were examined.

Twenty-three patients (79.3%) were categorized with T3 or T4 tumors that invaded adjacent organs. The outcome after undergoing radical resection (cumulative 5-year survival rate, 48.6%) was significantly better compared with the outcome of patients after undergoing primary tumor resection alone (cumulative 3-year survival rate, 7.7%; P = 0.004). The outcome after undergoing resection was better in 14 patients who had no residual tumor (cumulative 5-year survival rate, 62.9%) compared with the outcome in 15 patients who had residual tumor (cumulative 5-year survival rate, 0%; P < 0.001). Univariate analysis revealed that residual tumor status (P < 0.001), type of resection (P = 0.004), patient age (P = 0.012), and blood vessel invasion (P = 0.017) were significant prognostic factors. Residual tumor status (P = 0.026) was the only significant independent prognostic factor.

Adenosquamous/squamous cell carcinoma of the gallbladder warrants resection only if potentially curative (R0) resection is feasible.