High Prevalence of Gallbladder Cancer Among Elderly Gallstone Carriers in a Rural Japan Area

VernacularTitle:高齢化地域の胆石症患者における胆嚢癌合併率
Author: Akira TEMPAKU
Publication Type:Journal Article
From:Journal of the Japanese Association of Rural Medicine 2013;62(2):119-122
CountryJapan
Language:Japanese
Abstract: 　　Gallstones are frequently observed in cases with gallbladder cancer. However, no obvious evidence has proved that cholelithiasis is a risk factor for gallbladder cancer.Procedure: We presumed the ratio of asymptomatic gallbladder cancer accompanied by cho- lelithiasis in the aging-society population. The patients who were diagnosed as having choleli- thiasis but did not suffer from any gallbladder cancer were taken up in our study. The gallbladder was surgically resected and then analyzed pathologically.Results: In our hospital, 3.31% of patients suffered from gallbladder cancer or hyperplasia. The ratio of cancer carriers stood at 1.98% with that of hyperplasia carriers at 1.32%.Conclusions: According to our estimate, the ratio of gallbladder cancer among cholelithiasis patients is much higher than the one which has been recently reported. The surgical resection of the gallbladder for the sake of prevention has not been recommended. Our result suggests, however, that the surgical treatment of the gallbladder for the sake of prevention is important to avoid suffering from gallbladder cancer in the aging society. A further study is required to reconsider gallbladder resection.