User:Mr. Ibrahem/Gallbladder cancer

Gallbladder cancer is a type of cancer that begins within the gallbladder. Symptoms may vary from none, to right sided abdominal pain, yellowish skin, weight loss, and vomiting. Complications may include spread to other organs such as the liver.

The cause is often unknown. Risk factors include gallstones, gallbladder polyps, and congenital biliary cysts, as these can result in inflammation of the gallbladder. Other risk factors include long-term infection by salmonella typhi, isoniazid, radon, smoking, obesity, primary sclerosing cholangitis, and inflammatory bowel disease. Diagnosis may be based on blood tests, medical imaging, and biopsy.

Early stage disease may be curable with surgery. In certain cases chemotherapy or radiation therapy may be used. The overall five year survival rate in the United States is 19%, though this varies from 62% for early disease to 2% if the cancer has spread to distant parts of the body.

Gallbladder cancer is a relatively uncommon, with fewer than 2 new cases per 100,000 people per year in the United States. Females are more commonly affected than males. Those affected are generally over the age of 65. It occurs more commonly in South America, India, Pakistan, Japan, and South Korea, with rates as high as 10 per 100,000 in Chile. It also affects certain ethnicities more frequently including Native Americans. It was first described in 1777 by Maximilian de Stoll.