Gallbladder Cancer: Managing the Incidental Diagnosis

Abstract

Managing patients with incidental gallbladder cancer requires stratifying patients risk for recurrence and an appreciation for the recurrence patterns characterizing this malignancy. Although standard management includes reresection to remove sites at risk of harboring residual disease and to achieve negative resection margin status, the decision to perform surgery is tempered by an early and frequent distant recurrence, the most common cause of surgical failure. High-risk patients may benefit from neoadjuvant chemotherapy before reresection. The goal of curative-intent reresection is achieving R0 margin status and optimal staging while limiting morbidity and mortality.

Keywords: Incidental gallbladder cancer management; Neoadjuvant chemotherapy; Operative strategy for reresection; Prognostic factors; Recurrence patterns.