Management of gallbladder cancer in India

Abstract

Gallbladder cancer is a highly aggressive disease with variable prevalence across the globe. Particularly the Indo-Gangetic belt in Northern India has an incidence as high as 21/100,000. Majority of cases are detected either incidentally on pathological evaluation of cholecystectomy specimens or present with advanced disease. Radical surgery remains the mainstay of cure but only a small subset of patients is operable at presentation, and even with curative surgery recurrence rates remain high. Much debate surrounds the management of gallbladder cancer, with continuously evolving standards regarding the extent of hepatic resection and lymphadenectomy, curative resection in patients presenting with jaundice, routine excision of bile duct, and the role of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy. In this review we present a synopsis of currently available evidence and emerging approaches in the management of gallbladder cancer in India.

Keywords: Gallbladder cancer; Tata Memorial Hospital criteria (TMH criteria); incidental gallbladder cancer; locally advanced gallbladder cancer; port site excision; revision cholecystectomy.