Gallbladder cancer causes persistent high fever

If the patient has a persistent high fever, it is possible that the disease has metastasized. Let's look at the problem of metastasis:

Extrahepatic bile duct cancer rarely metastasizes in the early stage, while gallbladder cancer metastasis mainly spreads directly by infiltrating upward and downward along the bile duct wall. For example, upper hepatic duct cancer can directly invade the liver, which is more common than middle and lower cancer. The most common is metastasis to the hilar lymph nodes, but it can also spread to lymph nodes in other parts of the abdominal cavity. Blood metastasis is generally rare unless it is in the late stage of cancer. Among bile duct cancers in various parts of the body, liver metastasis is the most common, especially high-positioned bile duct cancer. Cancerous tissue is prone to invade the portal vein and form cancerous blood clots, which can lead to liver metastasis and metastasis to adjacent organs such as the pancreas and gallbladder.

Gallbladder cancer metastasizes early and widely. The metastatic pathways include lymphatic metastasis, hematogenous metastasis, and direct infiltration. It can also metastasize along blood vessels, nerves, bile ducts, and implant in the abdominal cavity. Those with nerve infiltration have a poor prognosis. Some people have found through surgery that among patients with gallbladder cancer that have metastasized, about 25% to 75% have lymphatic metastasis, and more than half of the tumors can directly infiltrate adjacent organs. The order of metastasis is liver, bile duct, membrane, stomach, duodenum, omentum, colon, and abdominal wall. About 1/5 of the patients have hematogenous metastasis. Some people believe that the most common metastatic pathways of gallbladder cancer are lymphatic metastasis and direct spread to the liver. When the tumor grows extensively beyond the omentum, it can also metastasize around nerves and blood vessels. The tumor can expand downward and cause bile duct obstruction.

Others believe that only 6% of gallbladder cancer metastasis is limited to the gallbladder, 83% infiltrates the liver, 38% metastasizes to local lymph nodes, 42% infiltrates and penetrates into adjacent organs, including the stomach, duodenum, colon and peritoneum, and 38% metastasizes to distant organs, which may involve the lungs, bone marrow and kidneys, and are more common in hematogenous metastasis. Enlarged nodules can often be found on the clavicle in many patients with gallbladder cancer.