Gallbladder & Bile Duct Cancer:
What is gallbladder and bile duct cancer?
Approximately 7,200 new patients are diagnosed with cancer of the biliary tract (the gallbladder and bile ducts) each year in the United States. Also known as biliary tract carcinoma, this is the second most common type of cancer that involves the region of the liver, following the most common form, cancer of the hepatocytes (hepatocellular carcinoma). Each year in the USA, 3600 patients die of biliary tract cancer, accounting for approximately 1% of all deaths from cancer. Biliary tract cancers are typically challenging to diagnose and treat.
Symptoms of gallbladder and bile duct cancer:
Bile duct cancer:
Patients with bile duct cancer most often become symptomatic when the cancer blocks the drainage of bile. Because bile cannot be excreted into the bowel, the bilirubin pigments accumulate in the blood, causing jaundice in 90% of patients. The jaundice is usually associated with itching of the skin. When this occurs, the body compensates and excretes some of this bilirubin via the urine, so patients may have dark colored urine. Because bile cannot reach the intestine, the patient's stools become white.
Gallbladder cancer:
Other symptoms may result from inflammation secondary to tumor obstruction. Patients with gallbladder cancer may have pain in the right upper portion of their abdomen. This pain is a result of inflammation of the gallbladder, due to blockage of the cystic duct. Approximately 1% of patients who undergo cholecystectomy (surgical removal of the gallbladder) for suspected cholecystitis prove to have unsuspected gallbladder cancer. Distal bile duct tumors near the ampulla of Vater, the point at which the bile drains into the bowel, obstruct the pancreatic duct and lead to pancreatitis.
Treatment & Prevention options:
Surgical removal, also known as resection, is currently the only treatment option for biliary tract carcinoma. The location of the tumor dictates which operation will be performed. Gallbladder cancers are treated by resection of the gallbladder. Low stage tumors can be resected with a minimally invasive procedure called "laparoscopic cholecystectomy".
Bile duct cancers within the liver (Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas) are treated by segmental resection of a portion of the liver. Occasionally, complete removal of the liver (hepatectomy) with liver transplantation will be attempted.
Bile duct cancers near the confluence of the bile ducts are treated differently depending upon how extensive the tumor is. Tumors confined below the right and left hepatic ducts are treated with resection of the extrahepatic bile ducts, gallbladder, and lymph nodes. Tumors that extend above the duct confluence may require resection of a lobe of the liver.
Related information:
- Anatomy & Functions of the gallbladder & bile ducts
- Mayo Clinic – Bile duct cancer
- The Cancer Information Network
- Mayo Clinic – Gallbladder Cancer
- More patient resources
| University of Missouri Health Care | This information is not intended to replace the advice of a doctor. |
