Gallbladder Carcinoma

Gallbladder cancer affects the gallbladder, a small pear-shaped organ located in your upper abdomen next to the liver. The role of the gallbladderis to store fluid called bile. The liver produces bile to help digest and absorb fats in the small bowel (or small intestine).

There are several types of gallbladder cancers, named after the type of cell it affects. Gallbladder cancer begins in the mucosal inner layer of thegallbladder and spreads through the outer layers. More than 85% ofgallbladder cancer types are adenocarcinomas that start in the gland cells lining the gallbladder. The role of the gland cells is to produce mucus, a thick fluid that coats the lining of the gallbladder tissue..

Risk factor

The risk group includes patients suffering from cholelithiasis and chronic cholecystitis. Other common factors include chronic typhoid infection, being overweight or obese and chronic smoking. Women suffer from this pathology four times more often than men. This disease most often occurs in people older than 50 years.

Symptoms

The tumour begins to form in the mucous membrane, then spreads to the liver and peritoneum. At the early stage of the disease, no specific symptoms are observed. Most often, patients have pressure in the upper abdomen, digestion is disrupted, nausea or vomiting. Then there are pains, weight of a body decreases. In addition to these symptoms, there is jaundice, can be due to infiltration of tumor into the liver or by the obstruction caused by involved lymph nodes around bile tract.

Diagnosis

Diagnosis of stomach cancer is established by doing an upper endoscopy. It is a procedure in which a flexible thin tube with camera is passed and stomach is seen from inside. If any abnormality is seen then a small sample from it is obtained called as biopsy and examined under microscope confirming the diagnosis.

STAGES OF GALLBLADDER CANCER ARE :

  • Stage I: At this stage, gallbladder cancer is confined to the inner layers of the gallbladder.
  • Stage II:This stage of gallbladder cancer has grown to invade the outer layer of the gallbladder.
  • Stage III:At this stage, gallbladder cancer has grown to invade one or more nearby organs, such as the liver, small intestine or stomach. The gallbladder cancer may have spread to nearby lymph nodes.
  • Stage IV:The latest stage of gallbladder cancer includes large tumours that involve multiple nearby organs and tumours of any size that have spread to distant areas of the body.

Treatment

  • Surgery to remove the gallbladder. Early gallbladder cancer that is confined to the gallbladder is treated with an operation to remove the gallbladder (cholecystectomy).
  • Surgery to remove the gallbladder and a portion of the liver. Gallbladder cancer that extends beyond the gallbladder and into the liver is sometimes treated with surgery to remove the gallbladder, as well as portions of the liver and bile ducts that surround the gallbladder.