Background: The usefulness of surgery in the treatment of gallbladder cancer has not been clearly established. The benefits of chemo and radiotherapy are similarly dubious.
Aim: To report the pathological findings in patients subjected to surgical reinterventions for gallbladder cancer.
Patients and methods: We report 54 patients with gallbladder cancer that were subjected to a second surgical intervention for resection of liver segments IVb and V and lymph nodes corresponding to the liver hilar, portal, peripancreatic, celiac artery and periaortic territories. Thirteen of these patients were subjected to preoperative chemo-radiotherapy (4500 Gy and 5-fluouracil 500 mg/m2).
Results: Lymph node metastases were found in 25 and 38%, and liver metastases in 25 and 28% of patients with or without chemo-radiotherapy respectively. The most frequent pathological findings attributed to radiation in the liver were fatty infiltration in 75% of cases, vascular transformation in 83% of cases and minimal periportal lymphocyte infiltration in 40% of cases. Lymph nodes were atrophic in 67% of cases and had foci of cortical necrosis in 46% of cases. Three cases had regional lymph node and liver metastases. Most tumor cells were viable.
Conclusions: No differences in the number of lymph node or liver metastases were observed between patients with and without chemo-radiotherapy. No effect of the treatment on residual tumor was observed either.