Gallbladder cancer is a rare type of cancer that is found anywhere in the gallbladder. According to the Mayo Clinic, the gallbladder is a small organ that is shaped like a pear. This organ is found on the right side of the stomach just beneath the liver. The gallbladder stores a fluid that is known as bile which is made by the liver and which helps to digest food.

The cancer of the gallbladder is usually very rare. In most cases, a patient is diagnosed when they are undergoing treatment for other health issues within the gallbladder such as gallstones.

“The chance for a cure is good when gallbladder cancer is found when it’s small. But most gallbladder cancers are found when they’ve grown beyond the gallbladder. Then the chance to survive, called prognosis, often is poor,” states Mayo Clinic .

The position of the gallbladder, a lack of specific symptoms, and the fact that cancer is very rare in the gallbladder have been found to be some of the main reasons why gallbladder cancer is diagnosed late when it has already too advanced.

Causes

According to the NHS Health, the majority of gallbladder cancer cases are linked to the patient’s lifestyle including being overweight, smoking, excessive alcohol intake. Other factors include gender, with women being at an elevated risk. The NHS Health says that this type of cancer, though, can hit anyone, with the common causes being:

• over the age of 75 – it’s most common in people over 85
• a woman
• having certain medical conditions, such as gallstones, growths (polyps) in your gallbladder, porcelain gallbladder, abnormal bile ducts, long-term swelling of the gallbladder or bile ducts, or diabetes
• having a brother, sister or parent who had gallbladder cancer

Symptoms

According to the NHS Health, some of the common symptoms may include:

• the whites of your eyes turning yellow or your skin turning yellow, which may be less obvious on brown or black skin (jaundice) – you may also have itchy skin, darker pee and paler poo than usual
• loss of appetite or losing weight unintentionally
• experiencing high temperature or feeling hot or shivery
• developing a lump in your belly
• feeling pain in the right side of your belly
• swollen belly even when you’ve not eaten

Dangerous cancer Bishop Kiuna spent Sh. 460 million to treat before death

Diagnosis

This type of cancer is diagnosed using imaging and blood tests. According to NHS, the main tests that a patient will have to undergo include:

• blood tests
• scans, like an ultrasound scan (sometimes from inside your body using an endoscope), CT scan, PET scan, MRI scan, or a type of X-ray called a cholangiography
• collecting a small sample of cells from the gallbladder (called a biopsy) to be checked for cancer
• a small operation to look inside your tummy, called a laparoscopy

Mayo Clinic further adds that the tests and procedures that will be used to stage gallbladder cancer will include:

• bile ducts blockage test: dye is put into the bile ducts. An imaging test then records where the dye goes. These tests may include magnetic resonance cholangiography and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography.

Treatment

Treatment for gallbladder cancer may include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, immunotherapy and targeted therapy. Surgery will be recommended if the cancer has not spread beyond the gallbladder.

Usually, the surgery may include a procedure to remove the gallbladder and, or to remove the gallbladder and part of the liver. In addition, radiation therapy can be used with chemotherapy after surgery if all the cancer couldn’t be removed.