Korean J Hepatobiliary Pancreat Surg.  2011 Aug;15(3):152-156. 10.14701/kjhbps.2011.15.3.152.

Treatment outcomes and prognostic factors of gallbladder cancer patients after postoperative radiation therapy

• Kim S
• Kim K
• Chie EK
• Kim SW
• Bang YJ
• Ha SW

• KMID: 2130986
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.14701/kjhbps.2011.15.3.152

Abstract

BACKGROUNDS/AIMS
To investigate survival rates and prognostic factors of patients with gallbladder cancer who were treated with surgery and postoperative radiation therapy.
METHODS
Seventeen gallbladder cancer patients who received surgery and postoperative radiotherapy from October 1989 to April 1998 were included in this retrospective study. Five patients had stage II, 8 patients had stage III, and 4 patients had stage IV disease according to the 1997 American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging. All patients received > or =40 Gy of postoperative radiotherapy with a daily dose of 2.0 Gy/fraction and 15 patients received concurrent chemotherapy. An analysis was performed for the endpoints of overall and disease-free survival.
RESULTS
Of the 17 patients, 13 had no residual disease (R0), 1 had microscopic residual disease (R1), and 3 had macroscopic residual disease (R2) after surgery. Among patients with no residual disease, 4 had locoregional recurrences during the follow-up period. One patient with microscopic residual disease had local recurrence. The 5-year overall survival rate was 38.2%. The median overall survival time was 21 months and the median disease-free survival time was 12 months. Old age (> or =60 years old), female gender, a high pathological stage (> or =IVA), and the presence of residual disease after surgery were significant prognostic factors for disease-free survival.
CONCLUSIONS
Despite a high proportion of patients with advanced disease and macroscopic residual disease, the prognosis of gallbladder patients who had postoperative radiotherapy is encouraging. Additional investigation to improve the loco-regional control of gallbladder cancer patients with adverse prognostic factors is warranted.

Keyword

Gallbladder cancer; Surgery; Radiotherapy; Prognosis

MeSH Terms

Disease-Free Survival
Female
Follow-Up Studies
Gallbladder
Gallbladder Neoplasms
Humans
Joints
Prognosis
Recurrence
Retrospective Studies
Survival Rate

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Overall survival curves. The 5-year overall survival rate for all 17 gallbladder cancer patients was 38%.

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  Fig. 2 Disease-free survival curves. The 5-year disease-free survival rate for patients with stage IVA and IVB disease were significantly lower than that of patients with stage II and III disease (p<0.05).

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