Karel Kroupa
Although carcinoma of the gallbladder is the most common malignant lesion of the biliary tract and the fifth most frequent malignancy of the digestive tract, it represents only 5 percent of all cancers found at autopsy. Ninety-one percent of patients who develop this malignancy are at least at the age of 50 or older and it occurs largely in elder people with long-term history of cholecystolithiasis. The incidence of cancer in women is three to four times that for men, and this is in contrast to the predominance of cancer of the bile ducts in men. When diagnosed incidentally at cholecystectomy, surgical resection can be curative; however, more commonly, the tumor is unresectable and rarely diagnosed preoperatively despite patients‘ symptoms. Early diagnosis can improve the clinical outcome and survival rate.