Gallbladder cancer rates have been stable or declining for most Americans over the past two decades, but cases have steadily risen among Black Americans, with growing numbers of cases not being diagnosed until later disease stages, according to a study presented at Digestive Disease Week 2024 (Abstract Mo1164).
“[Late-stage] gallbladder cancer diagnosis can be highly detrimental,” said lead author Yazan Abboud, MD, an internal medicine resident at Rutgers University New Jersey Medical School. “This could be due to a lack of timely access to health care, leading to delayed diagnosis. Non-Hispanic Black [patients] have been lacking in improvement in the mortality of gallbladder cancer compared to other racial and ethnic groups, who experienced declining mortality.”
Researchers analyzed records for 76,873 patients diagnosed with gallbladder cancer from 2001 to 2020 in the U.S. Cancer Statistics database. They found gallbladder cancer incidence rates were stable among White patients and declined at an average annual rate of 0.64% among Hispanic patients; meanwhile, case rates rose during this timeframe for non-Hispanic Black patients. Overall gallbladder cancer incidence rates among Black patients increased by an average of 1.03% per year, and the incidence of late-stage tumors increased at an average annual rate of 2.7%.
Gallbladder cancer is one of the most aggressive malignancies, with a 5-year survival rate of 19%, and is most often diagnosed at later stages. Over 41% of the cancers in the study were found in late stages, including 43.7% of cases in Black patients compared to 40.8% in White patients and 41.1% among Hispanic patients.
Among early-stage tumors, which represented 12.9% of overall cases, rates were found to be decreasing only in Hispanic patients—they were stable among Black and White patients. For mid-stage tumors, which represented 38.6% of overall cases, incidence rates declined for White patients and were stable for Black and Hispanic patients.
Dr. Abboud said future studies should investigate the reasons behind racial disparities in incidence of gallbladder cancer—especially the increasing trend of late-stage cases in Black patients—with the goal of improving early detection.
Disclosure: For full disclosures of the study authors, visit gastrojournal.org.
