Gallbladder Cancer and Gallstone

• Published in: Tando Vol. 26; no. 2; pp. 205 - 211
• Main Authors: Shoda, Junichi, Kawamoto, Toru
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: Japan Biliary Association 2012; 一般社団法人 日本胆道学会
• Subjects: epidemiology; gallbladder cancer; gallstone disease; guidelines; natural history; ガイドライン; 疫学調査; 胆嚢がん; 胆石; 自然史
• ISSN: 0914-0077; 1883-6879
• DOI: 10.11210/tando.26.205

Gallbladder cancer is a relatively rare neoplasm that differs from other cancers of the digestive tract. Therefore, the epidemiology has not well progressed and the risk factors have not been fully elucidated. With respect to the association between gallbladder cancer and gallstones, this review article introduced the data on the meta-analysis of the published findings that were conducted abroad, and those on the results of the Japan Public Health Center-Based Prospective Study, an epidemiological study based on the prospective follow-up of a large number of the Japanese population that has recently been reported from the Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Labor. This review also refers to the natural history of gallstone disease. There has been a consensus that a prophylactic cholecystectomy for subjects with asymptomatic gallstones does not improve their survival outcome throughout a decreased number of mortality, because of gallbladder cancer. It may not be true that all subjects with asymptomatic gallstones carry a high risk of gallbladder cancer. In the future, in order to focus attention on the high risk subjects, exploration and development of useful biomarkers is desired for the detection of gallstone-associated chronic inflammation and persistent biliary epithelial injury, which in turn are closely related to gallbladder carcinogenesis.