Controversies and Considerations on Surgical Treatment of Gallbladder Cancer

Abstract

Gallbladder cancer is a high malignancy which is predisposed to invade adjacent organs and have lymph node metastasis. Gallbladder cancer is not sensitive to radiotherapy or chemotherapy with the worst prognosis among biliary tract cancers. At present, radical resection is the only possible method to cure gallbladder cancer. However, there are still many controversies about the surgical strategies, the extent of liver resection and lymph node dissection, and the treatment of incidental gallbladder cancer. In addition, under the background of the great success of immunotherapy and targeted therapy in a variety of solid tumors, it is also a question worthy of further considerations that whether the status of surgery in the treatment of advanced gallbladder cancer will be changed in the near future.

Keywords

• gallbladder cancer
• surgical treatment
• laparoscopic surgery
• incidental gallbladder cancer