Systematic review on the surgical treatment for T1 gallbladder cancer

AIM: To evaluate the efficacy of simple and extended cholecystectomy for mucosa (ha) or muscularis (T1b) gallbladder (GB) cancer. METHODS: Original studies on simple and extended cholecystectonny for T1a or T1b GB cancer were searched from MEDLINE (PubMed), Cochrane Library, EMBase, and CancerLit using the search terms of GB, cancer/carcinoma/tumor/neoplasm. RESULTS: Twenty-nine out of the 2312 potentially relevant publications met the eligibility criteria. Of the 1266 patients with GB cancer included in the publications, 706 (55.8%) and 560 (44.2%) had T1a and T1b GB cancer, respectively. Simple cholecystectomy for Tla and T1b GB cancer was performed in 590 (83.6%) and 375 (67.0%) patients, respectively (P < 0.01). In most series, the treatment of choice was simple cholecystectomy for ha GB cancer patients with a 5-year survival rate of 100%. Lymph node metastasis was detected in 10.9% of the T1b GB cancer patients and in 1.8% of the Tla GB cancer patients, respectively (P < 0.01). Eight patients (1.1%) with T1a GB cancer and 52 patients (9.3%) with T1b GB cancer died of recurrent GB cancer (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Simple cholecystectomy represents the adequate treatment of Tla GB cancer. There is no definite evidence that extended cholecystectomy is advantageous over simple cholecystectomy for T1b GB cancer. (C) 2011 Baishideng. All rights reserved.