# Salmonella Typhi carriage and gallbladder cancer

Source: https://onco.cc/terms/salmonella-typhi-gallbladder-cancer/  
OnCo record `salmonella-typhi-gallbladder-cancer` (Term). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

People who carry typhoid bacteria in their gallbladder for years have roughly four to five times the risk of gallbladder cancer. Laboratory work shows the bacterium can push already-damaged gallbladder cells towards cancer.

## Summary

Chronic carriage of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi in the gallbladder, often on stones, is the infectious risk factor for gallbladder cancer in the Indian subcontinent and historically in Chile. A Chilean case-control study (39 cases, 40 gallstone controls, 39 population controls) found higher Vi antibody titres in cases (odds ratio 4.0, 95% CI 0.9 to 18.3) although the organism was not recovered from bile, stones, tissue or stool; the accompanying meta-analysis of more than 1,000 cases gave a summary relative risk of 4.6 (95% CI 3.1 to 6.8) for anti-Vi antibody and 5.0 (2.7 to 9.3) for bile or stool culture (Koshiol 2016). Mechanistically, Salmonella enterica induced malignant transformation in predisposed mice, murine gallbladder organoids and fibroblasts carrying TP53 mutation and c-MYC amplification; effector proteins secreted during infection activated MAPK and AKT signalling, which was needed both to start and to sustain transformation, consistent with observations in Indian patients (Scanu 2015). The finding gives a biological reason for the very early age of onset in India and for typhoid control and cholecystectomy of carriers as prevention.

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-09-24
- Also known as: typhoid carrier state; chronic Salmonella carriage; S. Typhi and gallbladder carcinoma

## Sources

- Koshiol et al., Cancer Med 2016: Salmonella Typhi and gallbladder cancer, case-control study and meta-analysis: https://doi.org/10.1002/cam4.915
- Scanu et al., Cell Host Microbe 2015: Salmonella infection transforms predisposed gallbladder cells: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chom.2015.05.002

## Connected records

- cancers: [Gallbladder cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/gallbladder/)
- targets: [TP53](https://onco.cc/targets/tp53/)
- pathways: [Inflammation & NF-κB](https://onco.cc/pathways/inflammation-nfkb/), [PI3K / AKT / mTOR](https://onco.cc/pathways/pi3k-akt-mtor/), [RAS / RAF / MEK / ERK (MAPK)](https://onco.cc/pathways/ras-mapk/)
- key papers: [Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi and gallbladder cancer: a case-control study and meta-analysis](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-koshiol-salmonella-typhi-gallbladder-meta-analysis-cancer-med-2016/), [Salmonella manipulation of host signaling pathways provokes cellular transformation associated with gallbladder carcinoma](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-scanu-salmonella-gallbladder-transformation-cell-host-microbe-2015/)

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