Factors influencing long-term survival in patients with T3 gallbladder adenocarcinoma

Purpose: This study aimed to identify the factors influencing the surgical outcome in patients with T3 gallbladder adenocarcinoma (GBA). Methods: Between 1996 and 2006, 100 GBA patients who underwent surgical treatment in Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taiwan, were retrospectively reviewed. Among them, 39 patients with pathological stage T3 GBA were analyzed statistically in terms of demographic data and clinicopathological features. Results: The 1-, 3- and 5-year survival rates for patients with T3 GBA undergoing surgical treatment were 53.5, 37.0 and 32.9%, respectively. Univariate survival analysis revealed male gender, low serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) level, and curative resection as factors which predicted favorable overall survival for T3 GBA patients. Multivariate survival analysis revealed low preoperative CEA levels and curative resections independently predicted favorable outcomes. Conclusions: Negative resection margin and serum CEA levels were found to be the independent prognostic factors in predicting long-term survival in patients with T3 GBA, and the serum CEA level was also found to be an independent prognostic factor in predicting the long-term prognosis of T0-T4 GBA; however, the result is preliminary due to the limited number of patients. Further studies with a large number of patients are necessary to confirm our result.