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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Oct 15, 2021; 13(10): 1317-1335
Published online Oct 15, 2021. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v13.i10.1317
Gallbladder cancer: Historical treatment and new management options
Kenji Okumura, Shekhar Gogna, Mahir Gachabayov, Daniel Moritz Felsenreich, Matthew McGuirk, Aram Rojas, Luis Quintero, Ramanathan Seshadri, Katie Gu, Xiang Da Dong
Kenji Okumura, Shekhar Gogna, Mahir Gachabayov, Matthew McGuirk, Aram Rojas, Department of Surgery, Westchester Medical Center, Valhalla, NY 10595, United States
Daniel Moritz Felsenreich, Division of General Surgery, Department of Surgery, Vienna Medical University, Vienna 1090, Austria
Luis Quintero, Department of Surgery, New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY 10595, United States
Ramanathan Seshadri, Katie Gu, Xiang Da Dong, Division of Surgical Oncology, Nuvance Health, Norwalk, CT 06856, United States
Author contributions: Okumura K and Dong XD did the design and concept for the project; Okumura K, Gogna S, Gachabayov M, Felsenreich DM, McGuirk M, Rojas A, Quintero L, Seshadri R and Gu K did the literature search and review; Okumura K, Gogna S, Gachabayov M, Felsenreich DM, McGuirk M, Rojas A, Quintero L, Seshadri R, Gu K and Dong XD did the manuscript preparation and writing; all authors approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflict of interest for this manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Xiang Da Dong, FACS, MD, Chief Doctor, Division of Surgical Oncology, Nuvance Health, 34 Maple Street, Norwalk, CT 06856, United States. eric.dong@nuvancehealth.org
Received: March 6, 2021
Peer-review started: March 6, 2021
First decision: June 4, 2021
Revised: June 19, 2021
Accepted: September 3, 2021
Article in press: September 3, 2021
Published online: October 15, 2021
Abstract

Gallbladder cancer is a rare, aggressive malignancy that has a poor overall prognosis. Effective treatment consists of early detection and surgical treatment. With the wide spread treatment of gallbladder disease with minimally invasive techniques, the rate of incidental gallbladder cancer has seen an equitable rise along with stage migration towards earlier disease. Although the treatment remains mostly surgical, newer modalities such as regional therapy as well as directed therapy based on molecular medicine has led to improved outcomes in patients with advanced disease. We aim to summarize the management of gallbladder cancer along with the newer developments in this formidable disease process.

Keywords: Gallbladder cancer, Radical cholecystectomy, Cholangiocarcinoma, Epidemiology, Gallbladder disease

Core Tip: Gallbladder cancer is a rare, aggressive malignancy that has an overall poor prognosis. Effective treatment consists of early detection and surgical treatment. With the wide spread treatment of gallbladder disease with minimally invasive techniques, the rate of incidental gallbladder cancer has seen an equitable rise along with stage migration towards earlier disease. Although the treatment remains mostly surgical, newer modalities such as regional therapy as well as directed therapy based on molecular medicine has led to improved outcomes in patients with advanced disease.