Carcinoma of the gallbladder: Autopsy findings in 287 cases and review of the literature

Abstract

From 1950 to 1982, 287 patients with cancer of the gallbladder were autopsied. The ratio of men to women was 1:3.7. The average age of women was 70 years; that of men was 69.5 years. Most tumors (67.7%) had grown by diffuse infiltration and one‐third (32.3%) were polypous‐exophttic. Fundus and collum of the gallbladder showed an equal frequency (24%) of tumor localisation. The percentage of all gallbladder malignomas that were adenocarcinomas of various differentiation was 84.6, and 10.9% were anaplastic carcinomas, the rest consisted of squa‐mous cell carcinomas (3.7%) and 0.8% sarcomas. Metastases were found in 265 cases (92.3%). Tumorous infiltration, lymph node metastases, and visceral metastases are discussed. A cholelithiasis was found in 78.4%. The results are compared with the literature.