Abstract
The goal of this work was to analyze the outcome of adjuvant chemoradiotherapy for patients with gallbladder cancer who underwent surgical resection and to identify the prognostic factors for these patients. Between August 1989 and November 2006, 47 patients with gallbladder cancer underwent surgical resection followed by adjuvant radiotherapy. There were 21 males and 26 females, and median age was 60 years (range 44-75years). Postoperative radiotherapy was delivered to the tumor bed and regional lymph nodes up to 40-50Gy at 2Gy/fraction; 41patients also received intravenous 5-fluorouracil as a radiosensitizer. Median follow-up duration was 48months for survivors. There were 2isolated locoregional recurrences, 14isolated distant metastases, and 7combined locoregional and distant relapses. The 5-year overall survival rate was 43.7%. According to the extent of resection, the 5-year overall survival rates were 52.8%, 20.0%, and 0% in R0-, R1-, and R2-resected patients, respectively (p = 0.0038). On multivariate analysis incorporating extent of resection, T stage, N stage, performance of lymph node dissection, and histologic differentiation, extent of resection was the only prognostic factor associated with overall survival (p = 0.0075). Among the 37patients with R0 resection, there was no difference of 5-year overall survival rates in patients with N0, N1, and Nx diseases (46.2%, 60.0%, and 44.4%, respectively, p = 0.6246). As for significant treatment-related morbidity, there was only 1patient with grade 4 gastric ulcer. Adjuvant chemoradiotherapy after R0 resection can achieve a good long-term survival rate in gallbladder cancer patients, even in those with lymph node metastases, and may play a role for patients who underwent R0 resection of primary tumor without lymph node dissection.
Published Version
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