How long can you live with gallbladder cancer

Do you know how long you can live with gallbladder cancer? It depends on how you treat it. Gallbladder cancer is the most common malignant tumor of the gallbladder, mainly adenocarcinoma. Gallbladder cancer accounts for about 2% of all biliary surgeries, and the cause of the disease is not very clear. Because 60-90% of gallbladder cancers are accompanied by gallstones, some people believe that long-term chronic irritation of stones and damage to the gallbladder mucosa may be the main cause.

The malignant transformation of benign gallbladder tumors is also one of the causes of gallbladder cancer. Gallbladder cancer clinically presents with chronic cholecystitis, and in the late stage, there may be jaundice, ascites, cachexia, gallbladder enlargement, etc. However, the symptoms lack specificity, and the diagnosis is usually made in the late stage. Gallbladder cancer mainly occurs in middle-aged people over 50 years old, and more women than men.

The treatment is mainly surgery, but it is difficult to make a correct diagnosis before surgery, and most of the patients are in the late stage and cannot be removed. After gallbladder removal, most patients die within one year, and the 5-year survival rate is less than 3%. Those who cannot be removed can try chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and Chinese herbal medicine, but the efficacy is uncertain.

Clinical manifestations: 1. Gallstones are more common in elderly patients. 2. Chronic cholecystitis symptoms. 3. Loss of appetite, indigestion, weight loss, fatigue. 4. Jaundice, fever, dark urine, light stool in late stage. 5. Physical examination: yellow skin and sclera, enlarged and non-tender gallbladder can be felt in the right upper abdomen, ascites in late stage.

Diagnostic basis: 1. Elderly patients with gallstones have symptoms of chronic cholecystitis. 2. Ultrasound or CT shows thickening of the gallbladder wall and mushroom-like protrusions in the cavity, which do not shrink or disappear with changes in body position or the cyst cavity. 3. Oral cholecystography often does not show up. 4. Selective hepatic artery angiography can show abnormal gallbladder blood vessels and vascular pools. 5. Laparoscopic or surgical biopsy is cancer.