Chemotherapy for Gallbladder Cancer

Gallbladder cancer is a disease with the highest prevalence among bile duct cancers with a poor prognosis in case of late diagnosis. Some conditions such as chronic inflammation, infections, polyps, anatomical variations of the bile duct, and genetic mutations are risk factors for the development of this disease. Early diagnosis is essential for a curative strategy for the disease, which may involve cholecystectomy with or without hepatectomy with subsequent evaluation of adjuvant treatment. During the last 20 years, adjuvant treatments based on chemotherapy alone or combined with radiotherapy have demonstrated benefits in overall survival. Considering the conditions of unresectability and metastatic disease, studies with chemotherapy have also demonstrated a survival benefit. New treatment modalities are being studied in the context of unresectable or metastatic disease and have shown promising results in recent years with targeted therapy and immunotherapy. In this chapter, we will discuss the main indications and the most relevant studies on gallbladder cancer in oncology practice.