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GALL BLADDER CANCER


Overview


Gall bladder cancer is cancer of the biliary tract which is quite rare in Western societies but not uncommon in Asia-Pacific countries including Australia, Korea and Japan. In the 1990s there was an increase in both the number of people diagnosed with the disease and the number of deaths it caused. In 2005, 600 Australians were diagnosed with biliary tract cancer, with half the cancers found in the gall bladder and the other half in the biliary tree.

Unfortunately, most people are diagnosed with biliary tract cancer once the tumour is too large to remove surgically or has spread to other areas of the body. This means that only 10%-30% of people with the disease are eligible for surgery—with the aim of a cure. Even so, the survival rate for these people is still very low and the average five-year survival rate for all patients is only 12%. For those who are ineligible for surgery, chemotherapy remains the main treatment option. At present, there is no chemotherapy regimen that has been shown to specifically help people live longer.

What we are doing to improve treatments


We are conducting one clinical trial in biliary tract cancer. This trial is:
  1. ABC – Testing a Combination of Chemotherapy on Biliary Cancer.