[Precancerous lesions of the gallbladder] (original) (raw)

To elucidate the morphological characteristics and the incidence of precancerous lesions of the gallbladder, 200 gallbladders removed for presumed benign diseases were examined histopathologically. Dysplastic epithelia with distinct cellular and structural atypic were graded into either mild or moderate to severe degree. Twenty-nine (14.5%) of 200 cases showed dysplasia ; 5 (2.5%) was to moderate to severe degree and 24 (12%) to mild degree. Carcinoma in situ was found in 4 cases (2%) and occult invasive carcinoma in 2 cases (1%). Simple hyperplasia was seen in 54 cases (27%). Abnormal epithelia showed a male preponderace in consistent with the previous report on cancer epidemiology in Japan. Dysplasia and hyperplasia were found to have close association with chronic cholecystitis, but not with gallstones per se. It was postulated that the progression of dysplasia or carcinoma in situ into invasive carcinoma may occur in the sixties to seventies. cancer ; cholecystitis ; dysplasia ; gallbladder ; gallstone In recent years much attention has been paid to the precancerous lesions in the gastrointestinal tract ; the organ with a tendency to develop cancers (Satoh et al. 1979). However, in the pancreas (Mukada and Yamada 1982) or the gallbladder (Albores-Saavedra et al. 1980), the identity of precancerous conditions seems to be less well established either clinically or pathologically in spite of their increasing interest in the diagnostic practice. Since carcinoma of the gallbladder is fairly common among Japanese, particluarly in males (Segi 1977), it is expected that precancerous lesions are frequently encountered in the unselected non-cancerous subjects. The purpose of the present study is to elucidate the morphological characteristics of the gallbladder dysplasia and related lesions through histopathological