Navigating gallbladder cancer, from detection to diagnosis
Gallbladder cancer develops in the tissues of the gallbladder, an organ that sits beneath the liver. Early-stage gallbladder cancer rarely presents with signs or symptoms, often leading to a late-stage diagnosis discovered during gallstone or gallbladder removal procedures. Once your doctor suspects gallbladder cancer, there are several steps to identify the disease and its stage.
An accurate cancer diagnosis from Penn Medicine is the first step in receiving personalized treatment options for gallbladder cancer. Our highly experienced cancer specialists use advanced techniques for diagnosis and actively research better ways to detect and treat gallbladder cancer.
Gallbladder cancer staging
After gallbladder diagnostic tests have been completed and cancer has been diagnosed, your care team moves on to staging. Staging describes the extent of the cancer’s spread and helps guide gallbladder cancer treatment decisions. Our doctors use the TNM system to stage gallbladder cancer, one of the most widely used cancer staging systems worldwide. It describes:
- Tumor (T): The size and other characteristics of the tumor, including how far it’s grown into the wall of the gallbladder and if the cancer has spread.
- Node (N): The number of lymph nodes affected by cancer cells.
- Metastasis (M): If the cancer has spread to other parts of the body.
Gallbladder cancer stages are typically categorized as follows:
- Stage 0: Also known as carcinoma in situ, precancerous cells are only found in the innermost layer of the gallbladder.
- Stage I: Cancer cells have spread to the muscle layer but there’s no evidence that they have spread to nearby lymph nodes or distant sites.
- Stage II: Cancer cells have spread to the connective tissues of the gallbladder, but there’s no evidence of lymph node involvement or that the cancer has spread anywhere else in the body.
- Stage III: The cancer has spread to nearby organs or lymph nodes but hasn’t spread to distant organs.
- Stage IV: The cancer has spread to distant organs, blood vessels, or lymph nodes.
Within each stage, there may be substages based on specific characteristics of the cancer.
Rated “exceptional” by The National Cancer Institute
Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center is a world leader in cancer research, patient care, and education. Our status as a national leader in cancer care is reflected in our continuous designation as a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) since 1973, one of 7 such centers in the United States. The ACC is also a member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, one of a select few cancer centers in the U.S., that are working to promote equitable access to high-quality, advanced cancer care.