Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 7, 2015; 21(1): 269-275
Published online Jan 7, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i1.269
Clinical outcomes of small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma and adenocarcinoma of the gallbladder
Sung Pil Yun, Nari Shin, Hyung Il Seo
Sung Pil Yun, Hyung Il Seo, Department of Surgery, Biomedical Research Institute, Pusan National University Hospital, Busan 602-739, South Korea
Nari Shin, Department of Pathology, Biomedical Research Institute, Pusan National University Hospital, Busan 602-739, South Korea
Author contributions: Seo HI designed the research; Yun SP and Shin N collected the data; Yun SP and Seo HI wrote the manuscript.
Supported by A clinical research grant from Pusan National University Hospital 2013
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (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/
Correspondence to: Hyung-Il Seo, MD, PhD, Department of Surgery, Biomedical Research Institute, Pusan National University Hospital, 189 Gudeok-Ro, Seo-Gu, Busan 602-739, South Korea. seohi71@hanmail.net
Telephone: +82-51-2407238 Fax: +82-51-2471365
Received: July 16, 2014
Peer-review started: July 17, 2014
First decision: August 15, 2014
Revised: September 2, 2014
Accepted: September 18, 2014
Article in press: September 19, 2014
Published online: January 7, 2015
Abstract

AIM: To compare the demographics and survival rates between gallbladder adenocarcinoma (GB-adenocarcinoma) and small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the gallbladder (GB-NEC-SCC).

METHODS: From March 2007 to September 2012, patients who underwent resection of tumor stage T2/T3 GB cancer were enrolled for this study. Forty-two patients were included in this study, including 38 diagnosed with GB-adenocarcinoma and four diagnosed with GB-NEC-SCC. In the GB-adenocarcinoma group, a radical operation was performed in 28 patients, and ten patients underwent simple cholecystectomy. In the GB-NEC-SCC group, a radical operation was performed in three patients, and one patient underwent simple cholecystectomy. Comparative analysis of the two groups was performed, including clinicopathologic features and survival rates.

RESULTS: The median age of the patients was 68 y (range: 35-83 years) and females comprised 26/42 of the patients. GB-adenocarcinoma patients were significantly older than GB-NEC-SCC patients (67.89 ± 11.15 vs 55.75 ± 10.31 years; P = 0.029). The median tumor size in GB-adenocarcinoma patients was 2.56 ± 1.75 cm and 3.98 ± 3.74 cm in GB-NEC-SCC patients; however, there was no significant difference between the two groups. For tumors > 2 cm, T stage (T2 vs T3), lymphovascular invasion, perineural invasion, lymph node metastasis and lymph node ratio showed no significant differences between the two groups. The overall survival rate of the 42 patients at five years was 77.0%. In the GB-adenocarcinoma group, the overall five-year survival rate was 74.8%, and survival in the GB-NEC-SCC group was 100%, which was not significantly different between the two groups.

CONCLUSION: The strategy for treating patients with GB-NEC-SCC should be similar to that used for treating GB-adenocarcinoma, including radical cholecystectomy and liver resection.

Keywords: Gallbladder adenocarcinoma, Gallbladder cancer, Radical resection, Small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma, Survival

Core tip: Small cell neuroendocrine carcinomas of the gallbladder are uncommon neoplasms, and therefore, little is known about their demographics and clinical course. Furthermore, the studies of the gallbladder neuroendocrine tumor and neuroendocrine carcinoma are limited to case reports with literature review. This study retrospectively compared the demographics and survival rates of gallbladder adenocarcinoma and small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the gallbladder, and reports the clinicopathologic features of small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the gallbladder, based on individual experiences.