The Effect of Adjuvant Radiotherapy in Patients Undergoing Complete Resection for Gallbladder Cancer with Lymph Node Metastasis

Abstract

Purpose: We evaluated the effect of adjuvant radiotherapy on survival in patients who underwent curative resection for gallbladder cancer with lymph node metastasis.

Methods: Among the patients underwent curative resection even though there was lymph node metastasis; fifteen patients underwent adjuvant radiotherapy with over 40 Gy (RTx group) and 10 patients did not (no RTx group). We compared these two groups retrospectively.

Results: The median disease free survival (DFS) of the RTx group (21.6 months) was longer than for the no RTx group (6.6 months, p=0.451). The median overall survival (OS) of the RTx group (30.5 months) was also longer than the no RTx group (14.2 months). One-, 2-, and 5-yr OS rates were 60.0%, 40.0% and 40.0% in the no RTx group, and 86.7%, 70.9% and 26.6% in the RTx group, respectively (p=0.507). Five patients developed recurrence within 1 year (50.0%) in the no RTx group; there were 3 (20.0%) in the RTx group.

Conclusion: Our study was limited by its retrospective nature and small numbers of patients. However, it suggests that adjuvant radiotherapy might improve DFS and OS for patients with completely resected but lymph node metastasized gallbladder cancer. Also this therapy seems to delay time to postoperative recurrence.