Clinicopathological prognostic factors for gallbladder carcinoma: a retrospective study

Fátima Ramalhosa; Maria João Amaral; Marco Serôdio; Rui Caetano Oliveira; Paulo Teixeira; Maria Augusta Cipriano; José Guilherme Tralhão

doi:10.21037/jgo-22-61

Clinicopathological prognostic factors for gallbladder carcinoma: a retrospective study

J Gastrointest Oncol. 2022 Aug;13(4):1997-2006. doi: 10.21037/jgo-22-61.

Authors

Fátima Ramalhosa^#¹, Maria João Amaral^#^{2

3}, Marco Serôdio^{2

3}, Rui Caetano Oliveira^{1

4

5}, Paulo Teixeira¹, Maria Augusta Cipriano¹, José Guilherme Tralhão^{2

3

5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Pathology Department, Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
² General Surgery Department, Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
³ Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
⁴ Clinical Academic Center of Coimbra (CACC), Coimbra, Portugal.
⁵ Coimbra Institute for Clinical and Biomedical Research (iCBR) Area of Environment, Genetics and Oncobiology (CIMAGO), Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
⁶ Biophysics Institute, Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Gallbladder carcinoma (GBC) is an uncommon neoplasm with poor long-term survival. Worldwide the incidence rates vary according to geographic area. The multifactorial aetiology and the rarity of the disease limits the studies to improve outcomes in patients, since the treatment remains mostly surgical. The aim of this study was to identify clinicopathological prognostic factors for survival in patients with GBC submitted to surgery in our institution-a tertiary centre in Portugal. Also, to assess the expression of possible biomarkers (HER2, CD44 and ALDH1) in GBC, as well as the frequency of microsatellite instability (MSI) tumours.

Methods: Clinicopathological characteristics of 41 consecutive patients that underwent surgical resection for GBC (2008-2019) at our hospital were retrospectively reviewed. Clinicopathological factors were assessed and an immunohistochemical (IHC) analysis was done. Microsatellite stability (MSS) was considered if there was maintenance of nuclear expression of MLH1, MSH2, MSH6 and PMS2. Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) expression was evaluated according to the rules applied for gastric cancer and expression of CD44 and ALH1 was evaluated in order to detect cancer stem cells (CSC). Survival analysis was conducted using Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression was used to find prognostic factors.

Results: Incidence of GBC in our cohort of patients was 0.45%, most commonly affecting females. Median overall survival (OS) was 23 months with a 39.6% 5-year survival rate. Stage > II [hazard ratios (HR) =8.58; P=0.007], lymphovascular invasion (LVI) (HR =4.06; P=0.045) and hepatic resection (HR =0.288; P=0.034) independently influenced survival. HER2 positivity and high expression of CD44 or ADLH1 did not show significant influence in survival (P=0.649, P=0.868 and P=0.914, respectively), although HER2 and ALDH1 positive patients showed a tendency to a shorter OS, compared to negative patients. We found no relation between these biomarkers expression and disease stage. All analysed samples had MSS.

Conclusions: GBC patients with a worse prognosis can be identified. The overexpression of HER2 could select patients for targeted therapy and prompt tissue sampling in unresectable patients.

Keywords: ALDH1; CD44; Gallbladder cancer; HER2; microsatellite instability (MSI).