Development of a novel predictive nomogram to prevent futile surgery in gallbladder cancers a single center analysis of resected gallbladder cancers

Gallbladder cancer (GBC) has a higher rate of occurrence in India compared to the rest of the world. Surgery to remove the gallbladder is often seen as the only way to cure GBC. Surgery ranges from a simple removal of gallbladder to major liver surgery depending on different stages of GBC. However, even after surgery, many patients (20-30 percentage) only live for about five years, and over half see the cancer come back. This raises the question if surgery is the best option for all GBC cases. Sometimes, the risks of GBC surgery can be more than the benefits and it might not help the patient to live longer or feel better. This is called ‘futile surgery’.

This study has gathered data of a large population of GBC patients to understand which patients are likely to not have any benefit from surgery. The goal of this study is to create a tool which will help doctors in identifying such patients. This will avoid unnecessary surgeries and focus on treatments which will be helpful to patients.