Gall bladder cancer in north eastern Libya

Objective: Assessment of gall bladder cancer among cholecystectomy specimen s. Design: Retrospective study of all cholecystectomy specimens coupled with d ata from clinical oncology department. Setting: Department of Pathology and Department of Clinical Oncology, Al Ar ab Medical University, Benghazi, Libya. Subject: Gall bladder cancer among cholecystectomies and the pattern of sur vival of these patients. Material: Histopathology records available on all cholecystectomies perform ed between 1982 and 1997, Data available on staging and survival of cancer patients from clinical oncology upto 1996, Results: Eighty nine cases of gall bladder cancer were found out of 7352 ch olecystectomies performed over a period of 16 years. It was found more comm only in females with a mean age of 58.1 years. It was also observed that th e incidence in males above 60 years was almost equal to that of females, Ga ll bladder cancer when primarily detected by the pathologist in cholecystec tomy specimens removed for symptomatic cholelithiasis! was mostly in stage I, Most of the patients in stage III. cancer died within one year whereas m ost of the stage I cancer patients survived more than two years, Conclusion: Simple cholecystectomy is strongly advised in women above 50 ye ars of age and in men above 60 years of age with symptomatic cholelithiasis .