title: Role of radical resection in patients with gallbladder carcinoma and jaundice.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Gallbladder carcinoma (GBC) is a commonly-seen malignancy of the biliary tract characterized by difficult early diagnosis, rapid growth, early metastasis, and poor prognosis. Nearly half of GBC patients also have jaundice, which is a mark of the advanced stage of GBC. The role of radical resection in patients of gallbladder carcinoma with jaundice is still a matter of uncertainty, which we attempted to clarify in this study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Totally, 251 GBC patients who received treatment at the Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital (EHBH) from December 2002 to January 2010 were recruited into this study. We divided them into group A (jaundice group, n=117) and group B (non-jaundice group, n=134). Clinical records and follow-up data were collected and retrospectively analyzed in both groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared with group A, patients in group B had a longer median survival time ((6.0±0.5) months vs. (15.0±2.6) months, P<0.01). Even in patients with stage III or stage IV GBC, the median survival time in patients without jaundice (n=111), was still longer than that in patients with jaundice (n=116) (P<0.01). The radical resection rate was lower in group A patients than in group B patients with stage III or stage IV GBC; 31.9% vs. 63.1%. However, the median survival time of patients undergoing radical resection did not show a statistical difference between jaundice patients and non-jaundice patients; (12.0±4.3) months vs. (18.0±3.0) months (P>0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  GBC with jaundice usually implies advanced stage disease and a poor prognosis for the patients. However, our findings indicate that as long as the patient's condition allows, radical resection is still feasible for GBC patients with jaundice, and may achieve a prognosis close to those GBC patients without jaundice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biliary Surgery, Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgical Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200438, China.
authors.forename: Fei-ling
authors.initials: FL
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Bai-he
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xiao-qing
authors.initials: XQ
authors.lastname: Jiang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D005706:Gallbladder Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D007565:Jaundice / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged