Background and aim: Carcinoma of the gallbladder is the most frequent biliary tract lesion but the 5-year survival is less than 5%. The aim of this study was to analyze the influence of several clinico-pathological variables on survival in a series of 226 carcinomas of the gallbladder.
Patients and methods: The results were retrospectively analyzed and prognostic factors were identified by univariate statistical analysis and Cox regression model. All patients underwent surgery and in 67 of these (29.6%), surgery was potentially curative. In 63 patients (27.9%) diagnosis was made when the resected gallbladder was studied for benign disease. Tumor node metastasis (TNM) stage was 0 in 7 patients (3.1%), stage I in 19 patients (8.4%), stage II in 21 patients (9.3%), stage III in 61 patients (27%) and stage IV in 118 patients (52%).
Results: Overall 5-year survival was 17.3%. In the univariate analysis, significant variables were the presence of jaundice, weight loss, palpation of abdominal tumors at diagnosis, surgical technique, TNM stage and the three variables of this system (T: size, N: adenopathies; M: distant metastasis). In the multivariate analysis, the three variables of the TNM system and surgical technique were significantly associated with survival.
Conclusions: The most important prognostic factor was TNM stage. Currently, radical cholecystectomy in stages II and III has become another important prognostic factor.