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Background Gallbladder cancer (GBC) is the most common biliary tract malignancy and has a poor prognosis. The clinical significance of focal vs diffuse GBC remains unclear.Methods A retrospective review was conducted on all patients with non-metastatic GBC at a quaternary care center. Pathology was reviewed, and gallbladder cancer pattern was defined based on the extent of mucosal involvement; “diffuse” if the tumor was multicentric or “focal” if the tumor was only in a single location. Patients undergoing liver resection and portal lymphadenectomy were considered to have definitive surgery. The primary outcome was overall survival and assessed by Kaplan-Meier curves.Results 63 patients met study criteria with 32 (50.7%) having diffuse cancer. No difference was observed in utilization of definitive surgery between the groups (14 [43.8%] with focal and 12 [38.7%] with diffuse, P= .88). Lymphovascular invasion (P= .04) and higher nodal stage (P= .04) were more common with diffuse GBC. Median overall survival was significantly improved in those with focal cancer (5.1 vs 1.2 years, P= .02). Although not statistically significant, this difference in overall survival persisted in patients who underwent definitive surgery (4.3 vs 2.4 years, P= .70).Discussion Patients with diffuse involvement of the gallbladder mucosa likely represent a subset with aggressive biology and worse overall survival compared to focal disease. These findings may aid surgeons in subsequent surgical and medical decision-making for patients with GBC.

Background and Objective Five-year survival in pancreatic adenocarcinoma is less than 20%. While previous studies have postulated that a carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) threshold could predict outcome of resection, the role for CA19-9 in decision-making remains unclear. This study aims to assess whether CA19-9 levels combined with tumor size improve prediction of post-resection survival.Method A retrospective analysis was conducted on 109 patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma who underwent perioperative chemotherapy followed by resection. The primary outcome of mortality was, divided into short (<1 year) or prolonged (>2 years). Univariate and multivariable analyses compared the tumor size-adjusted CA19-9 between the outcome groups.Results Twenty-seven (24.78%) and eighty-two (75.23%) patients were in the short survival and prolonged-survival groups, respectively. The mean CA19-9 was significantly greater in the short vs prolonged group (P< .001). Analyzing CA19-9 level by tumor size, the association of high CA19-9 and short survival was significant for small (≤2 cm) and large tumor (>4 cm), but not for intermediate-size tumors (2-4 cm). Adjusting for preoperative variable did not change this association.Conclusion CA 19-9 in combination with tumor size better identifies patients with prolonged post-resection survival. This prediction is most accurate in patients with either small (≤2 cms) or large (>4 cms) tumors compared to intermediate-size tumors.