Gastrointestinal system
Aida Lai in Essential Concepts in Anatomy and Pathology for Undergraduate Revision, 2018
Gallbladder cancer Most commonly adenocarcinomaAssociated with cholelithiasis and porcelain gallbladderSymptoms: – RUQ pain– anorexia– jaundice– weight lossManagement: cholecystectomy
Gallbladder Cancer with Obstructive Jaundice and Periportal Lymph Node
Savio George Barreto, Shailesh V. Shrikhande in Dilemmas in Abdominal Surgery, 2020
Gallbladder cancer is the fifth most common malignancy of the gastrointestinal tract. The cancer demonstrates marked geographic variations with the highest incidence reported in South America (Chile and Bolivia) and India. Gallbladder cancer is more common in women (4:1 ratio), and the main risk factors include gallstone disease, gallbladder polyps, and abnormal pancreaticobiliary duct junction. Gallbladder cancer is associated with low five-year survival rate. The poor prognosis is largely due to two factors: The absence of specific symptoms early in the course of the disease, and absence of a submucosa in the gallbladder permitting the cancer to invade deeper tissues with a high propensity for adjacent organ involvement and nodal spread, even for relatively small-sized tumors. On the flip side, around 50–70% of patients with gallbladder cancer are detected incidentally on histopathology following simple cholecystectomy for presumed benign conditions.
The Liver and the Biliary System
E. George Elias in CRC Handbook of Surgical Oncology, 2020
Early presenting signs and symptoms of gallbladder cancer are similar to any gallbladder disease. Therefore, in most cases, the diagnosis of gallbladder cancer is not made clinically. Even at surgery, the diagnosis may be missed until the pathologist reports it. Radiological studies also do not differentiate between benign and malignant gallbladder disease. They only reveal a nonfunctioning gallbladder. If other anomalies are detected, it is due to the more advanced stages of the disease rather than accurate early diagnosis of the case. Sonography can detect some but again cannot differentiate between the carcinoma and a benign papillary lesion in the gallbladder. CT scanning will detect advanced cases but cannot differentiate between a thickened wall of the gallbladder due to tumor or due to a benign condition such as the inflammatory cases which are more common.
Hesperidin Induces ROS-Mediated Apoptosis along with Cell Cycle Arrest at G2/M Phase in Human Gall Bladder Carcinoma
Published in Nutrition and Cancer, 2019
Pratibha Pandey, Uzma Sayyed, Rohit Kumar Tiwari, Mohammad Haris Siddiqui, Neelam Pathak, Preeti Bajpai
Gallbladder cancer is one of the most aggressive malignant tumors of the biliary tract with the shortest median survival from the time of diagnosis and poor prognosis (1). This poor prognosis is due to various reasons but mainly because of an aggressive biologic behavior and a lack of sensitive screening tests for early detection. Numerous genetic alterations have been implicated in gallbladder cancer including oncogene activation, tumor suppressor gene inhibition, microsatellite instability, and methylation of gene promoter areas with approximately 1,281 genetic mutations reported in gallbladder cancer (2). Surgical resection is the only option for a complete cure. Radiotherapy and adjuvant gemicitabine chemotherapy have been the standard treatments for GBC till date (3). Although these chemotherapeutic drugs provide a relief to cancer patients yet possess enormous side effects. Therefore, there is a vital need to elucidate an alternative therapeutic agent with promising potential and minimal side effects. The huge economic burden of chemotherapeutic drugs also additionally paralyzes the livelihood of the patients. Thus, the cost effectiveness has to be an essential component of drug designing against cancer.
Isoalantolactone suppresses gallbladder cancer progression via inhibiting the ERK signalling pathway
Published in Pharmaceutical Biology, 2023
Xingyu Lv, Yuqi Lin, Xi Zhu, Xiujun Cai
Gallbladder cancer usually originates in the epithelial cells of the biliary duct system (Shen et al. 2019; Mao et al. 2020; Chen et al. 2021). According to the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program database, GBC has a poor prognosis, with a median survival time of less than 12 months and a 5-year overall survival (OS) rate of less than 5% (Hundal and Shaffer 2014; Cai et al. 2020; Mao et al. 2020). Surgery is currently the only treatment option, but most patients are diagnosed too late for surgery, as GBC onset and progression are usually asymptomatic at early stage (Roessler et al. 2021). If GBC has metastases at the time of diagnosis, surgery is usually not indicated and chemotherapy is the first choice of treatment (Baiu and Visser 2018). Although gemcitabine-based systemic chemotherapy offers a treatment option, only a few patients yield promising prognoses due to severe systemic toxicity and drug resistance (Azizi et al. 2021). Therefore, novel potential antitumour drugs need to be explored to improve the quality of life and OS of GBC patients.
Emerging treatment strategies in hepatobiliary cancer
Published in Expert Review of Anticancer Therapy, 2023
Deniz Can Guven, Hasan Cagri Yildirim, Elvin Chalabiyev, Fatih Kus, Feride Yilmaz, Serkan Yasar, Arif Akyildiz, Burak Yasin Aktas, Suayib Yalcin, Omer Dizdar
Biliary tract cancers (BTC) include intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA), hilar cholangiocarcinoma, extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (eCCA), and gallbladder cancer (GBC) [1]. Although they are grouped together as biliary tract cancers, these four entities have distinct characteristics regarding the epidemiology, risk factors, tumor molecular characteristics and prognosis [2]. The gallbladder cancer is more frequent in women in advanced ages. Majority of the patients are incidentally diagnosed after cholecystectomies for benign reasons. Symptomatic patients with GBC tend to have poorer overall survival due to the higher frequency of local and vascular invasion, regional lymph node involvement, and distant metastases at the time of diagnosis [3]. Obesity, gallstones with chronic inflammation, calcified gallbladder (porcelain gallbladder), polyps of 1 cm and above, primary sclerosing cholangitis, and inflammatory bowel diseases are other risk factors [4]. The median overall survival rates for stage I–III and IV disease are 12.9 and 5.8 months, respectively [5]. The prognosis is poorer and the frequency of targetable alterations like fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) and isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) gene mutations is lower in patients with GBC compared to iCCA [6].
Related Knowledge Centers
- Calcification
- Indigestion
- Jaundice
- Lymph Node
- Abdomen
- Liver
- Cancer
- Gallbladder
- Signs & Symptoms
- Porcelain Gallbladder