Simple versus radical cholecystectomy and survival for pathologic stage T1B gallbladder cancer

Radical cholecystectomy is recommended for T1B and greater gallbladder cancer, however, there are conflicting reports on the utility of extended resection for T1B disease. Herein, we characterize outcomes following simple and radical cholecystectomy for pathologic stage T1B gallbladder cancer.

The National Cancer Database (NCDB) was queried for patients with pathologic T1B gallbladder cancer diagnosed from 2004 to 2018. Patients were stratified by surgical management. Overall survival (OS) was compared with Kaplan-Meier and multivariable Cox proportional hazards methods.

Altogether, 950 patients were identified with pathologic T1B gallbladder cancer: 187 (19.7 %) receiving simple and 763 (80.3 %) radical cholecystectomy. Median OS was 89.5 (95 % CI 62.5-137) and 91.4 (95 % CI 75.9-112) months for simple and radical cholecystectomy, respectively (log-rank p = 0.55). Receipt of simple cholecystectomy was not associated with greater hazard of mortality compared to radical cholecystectomy (HR 1.23, 95 % CI 0.95-1.59, p = 0.12).

In this analysis, we report comparable outcomes with simple cholecystectomy among patients with pathologic T1B gallbladder cancer. These findings suggest that highly selected patients, such as those with R0 resection and imaging at low risk for residual disease and/or nodal metastasis, may not benefit from extended resection; however, radical cholecystectomy remains standard of care until prospective validation can be achieved.