Carcinoma of the gallbladder: autopsy findings in 287 cases and review of the literature

From 1950 to 1982, 287 patients with cancer of the gallbladder were autopsied. The ratio of men to women was 1:3.7. The average age of women was 70 years; that of men was 69.5 years. Most tumors (67.7%) had grown by diffuse infiltration and one-third (32.3%) were polypous-exophytic. Fundus and collum of the gallbladder showed an equal frequency (24%) of tumor localisation. The percentage of all gallbladder malignomas that were adenocarcinomas of various differentiation was 84.6, and 10.9% were anaplastic carcinomas, the rest consisted of squamous cell carcinomas (3.7%) and 0.8% sarcomas. Metastases were found in 265 cases (92.3%). Tumorous infiltration, lymph node metastases, and visceral metastases are discussed. A cholelithiasis was found in 78.4%. The results are compared with the literature.