# Prognostic Significance of Tumor Location in T2 Gallbladder Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Source: https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-kang-t2-gallbladder-cancer-location-meta-analysis-jcm-2021/  
OnCo record `paper-kang-t2-gallbladder-cancer-location-meta-analysis-jcm-2021` (Key paper). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Pooling seven studies, muscle-invading gallbladder cancers on the liver side were about twice as likely to be fatal as those on the free side, yet the bigger operation did not clearly improve survival in either group.

## Summary

Systematic review and random-effects meta-analysis of studies to September 2020: seven studies, 1,789 resected T2 gallbladder cancers. Overall survival was worse for T2b (hepatic side) than T2a: hazard ratio 2.141 (95 percent CI 1.140 to 4.023; I2 71.4 percent). Lymph node metastasis was 26.6 percent in T2a and 36.6 percent in T2b (odds ratio 2.164, 1.309 to 3.575). Extended and simple cholecystectomy showed no survival difference in T2a (odds ratio 0.802, 0.618 to 1.042) or T2b (0.820, 0.620 to 1.083). The authors call for large prospective studies to set evidence-based treatment for T2 disease.

## Fields

- Kind: Key paper
- Last checked: 2026-09-24
- Tags: gallbladder-evidence
- Journal: Journal of Clinical Medicine
- Year: 2021
- DOI: 10.3390/jcm10153317
- Authors: Kang H, Choi YS, Suh SW, et al.
- Findings: T2b vs T2a overall survival hazard ratio 2.141 (95 percent CI 1.140 to 4.023).; Nodal metastasis 26.6 percent in T2a vs 36.6 percent in T2b (odds ratio 2.164).; Extended vs simple cholecystectomy: no survival difference in T2a (odds ratio 0.802) or T2b (0.820).
- What it means: The prognostic split is solid; the surgical consequence is not. Whether T2a tumours can safely skip liver resection, and whether T2b tumours gain from it, is a randomised or prospective-registry question that nobody has yet run.
- Caveats: Retrospective studies with high heterogeneity (I2 71 percent) for the survival comparison.; Selection into extended versus simple cholecystectomy was not random.

## Sources

- J Clin Med 2021: https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm10153317
- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34362101/

## Connected records

- key papers: [Tumor location and concurrent liver resection, impact survival in T2 gallbladder cancer: a meta-analysis of the literature](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-khan-t2-gallbladder-cancer-liver-resection-meta-analysis-updates-surg-2021/)
- cancers: [Gallbladder cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/gallbladder/)
- terms: [Radical (extended) cholecystectomy](https://onco.cc/terms/radical-cholecystectomy/), [T2a versus T2b gallbladder cancer (peritoneal side versus hepatic side)](https://onco.cc/terms/t2a-versus-t2b/)
- roadmaps: [Gallbladder cancer roadmap: from a chance finding at gallstone surgery to a disease with its own trials](https://onco.cc/roadmaps/gallbladder-cancer-roadmap/)
- ideas: [A trial of sparing the liver resection in peritoneal-side (T2a) gallbladder cancer](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-gbc-t2a-spare-liver-resection-trial/)

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