Evaluating the Risk of Gallbladder Cancer

Excerpt

To the editor: Maringhini and associates (1) may have underestimated the risk of gallbladder cancer in persons with cholelithiasis. Gallbladder cancer is notoriously difficult to diagnose, and often is unexpectedly discovered during surgery for presumed benign gallstone disease. However, the authors excluded from their analysis patients whose cancer was diagnosed within 15 days of the initial diagnosis of gallstones. This selection policy would have excluded patients referred for surgery immediately after their gallstones were clinically recognized, some of whom may have had gallbladder cancer. It would be of interest to know how many cases of gallbladder cancer were eliminated from