Gallbladder Cancer: Diagnosed at Advanced Stage – A Conundrum

Authors

  • Debashish Bar Senior consultant of surgery, 250 bedded district hospital, Madaripur
  • Md Mohsen Chowdhury Professor, Department of Hepatobiliary Pancreatic & Liver Transplant Surgery, BSMMU, Dhaka
  • Bidhan Chandra Das Professor, Department of Hepatobiliary Pancreatic and liver transplant Surgery, BSMMU, Dhaka
  • Amal Chowdhury OSD, DGHS
  • Nawreen Suzana Medical Officer, Department of Surgical Gastroenterology, National Gastroliver Institute & Hospital, Mohakhali, Dhaka

Keywords:

Carcinoma Gallbladder, Incidental carcinoma gallbladder, late diagnosis

Abstract

 Introduction: Gallbladder cancer typically remains silent until an advanced and often noncurative stage with the shortest median survival after diagnosis. This study was conducted to find out the factors responsible for diagnosis of carcinoma gallbladder at advanced stage.

Materials and Methods: This observational study was conducted in the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University from July 2022- June 2023 on 110 patients of carcinoma gallbladder. The patients were grouped into early (stage I, II) and advanced stage (stage III, IV) on the basis of imaging or histopathology report. All the variables related to diagnosis of carcinoma gallbladder were evaluated and factors related to delayed diagnosis were worked out.

Results: 28 (25.5%) patients of this study group were incidental, 16 (14.5%) were early and 66 (60%) were advanced gallbladder carcinoma. Rural residence, low educational level and poor economic status of our people, lack of specific symptom at early stage of the disease, lack of sensitivity of most commonly performed imaging (USG) and absence of sensitive tumour marker at early stage were responsible for delayed diagnosis of the disease.

Conclusion: Clinicians should be very suspicious to diagnose gallbladder carcinoma at early stage. Patients presenting with symptoms of benign biliary disease should be investigated properly, when there is suspicious gallbladder wall thickness, CA 19-9 and CECT or MRI should be warranted.

Journal of Surgical Sciences 2024;28(1): 9-14

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Published

2026-07-15

How to Cite

Gallbladder Cancer: Diagnosed at Advanced Stage – A Conundrum. (2026). Journal of Surgical Sciences, 28(1), 9-14. https://doi.org/10.3329/jss.v28i1.91056

Issue

Vol. 28 No. 1 (2024)

Section

Original Articles

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No part of the materials published in this Journal may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher. Reprints of any article in file Journal will be available from the publisher.

How to Cite

Gallbladder Cancer: Diagnosed at Advanced Stage – A Conundrum. (2026). Journal of Surgical Sciences, 28(1), 9-14. https://doi.org/10.3329/jss.v28i1.91056