Gallbladder cancer: surgical treatment, immunotherapy, and targeted therapy

ABSTRACT

Gallbladder cancer is a common type of biliary tract tumor. Optimal management for early stage cases typically involves radical excision as the primary treatment modality. Various surgical techniques, including laparoscopic, robotic, and navigational surgery, have demonstrated favorable clinical outcomes in radical gallbladder excision. Unfortunately, most patients are ineligible for surgical intervention because of the advanced stage of the disease upon diagnosis. Consequently, non-surgical interventions, such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy, and targeted therapy, have become the mainstay of treatment for patients in advanced stages. This review focuses on elucidating various surgical techniques as well as advancements in immunotherapy and targeted therapy in the context of recent advancements in gallbladder cancer research.

KEYWORDS:

• Gallbladder tumor
• immunotherapy
• targeted therapy
• surgical management
• laparoscopic surgery
• robotic surgery
• navigation surgery

Declaration of financial/other relationships

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties. Peer reviewers on this manuscript have received an honorarium from IPGM for their review work but have no other relevant financial relationships to disclose.

Acknowledgments

We express our gratitude to all the participants who participated in the study.

Author contributions

Yanjun Sun: conceptualization, writing – original draft; Junfeng Gong: conceptualization, writing – original draft; Zhuang Li: writing – original draft; Lin Han: supervision, writing – review and editing; Dengqun Sun: supervision, writing, review, and editing.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grants from the Provincial Natural Science Foundation of Anhui [Grant Nos. 1808085MH238 and 1908085MH261]. This work was also supported by Armed police Force high-level science and technology personnel fund (ZG202193) and Key discipline construction project and the accelerated publication fee was funded by these two projects. The funding bodies had no role in the design of the study; the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; or in writing the manuscript.