Treatment of carcinoma of the gallbladder in Japan

Clinical records of 2567 patients (1717 female and 850 male) with primary carcinoma of the gallbladder in Japan, during the past 19 years, were collected by questionnaires sent out to the main 100 surgical institutes in Japan. Eighty-seven per cent of the patients were over fifty years of age. Gallstones were found in 58.8% of 1496 patients. About 50% of the patients with gallstones had cholesterol group stones. Of the 2269 patients who underwent surgical interventions, radical operations were performed in 467 patients (20.6%). Of the 467 patients, a correct preoperative diagnosis was made in only 77 patients (16.3%). Patients in Nevin's Stages I and II, whose lesions had been confined to the muscle layer, showed a good survival rate with only simple cholecystectomy or extended cholecystectomy, while the patients in Stages III, IV and V, whose lesions had spread beyond the muscle layer, showed poor results even with more aggressive surgical approaches. The poor prognosis of the lesions in Stages III, IV and V might be due to inappropriate aggressive procedures. For the lesions involving all the layers of the gallbladder wall, radical resection, such as extended cholecystectomy plus pancreatoduodenectomy, or extended right lobectomy plus pancreatoduodenectomy, might be recommended.