CURRENT CONCEPTS IN CANCER - CARCINOMA OF THE BILIARY-TRACT

BILIARY cancer often gets short shrift in the differential diagnosis of obstructive jaundice because it is considered both rare and irremediable. Actually, cancer of the gallbladder and extrahepatic bile ducts is responsible for about 80 deaths in the United States weekly,1 and, if seldom curable, it can often be palliated, sometimes for nearly a decade.2* Epidemiology The preponderance of women in statistics on biliary cancer reflects their 67 per cent representation among patients with the relatively common gallbladder cancer, whereas 60 per cent of patients with the less frequent bile-duct cancers are men.3 Because gallstones are the major known. © 1979, Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.