Incidence and Prognosis of Biliary Tract and Gallbladder Cancers in a Belgian Academic Hospital

Background Biliary tract and gallbladder cancers are rare tumors with a poor prognosis (except the ampulla type). The evolution of hepatobiliary cancer incidence varies widely around the world. According to the Belgian Cancer Registry, the number of hepatobiliary cancers has increased every year since 2004. Materials and Methods This retrospective study included patients diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma, ampulla cancer, or gallbladder cancer at the university hospital, CHU UCL, Godinne site, in Namur, Belgium, between 1997 and 2017. The evolution of cancer incidence was evaluated with the Mann-Kendall method, by analyzing 7 consecutive 3-year periods. We calculated survival with the Kaplan-Meier method, and we determined prognostic factors with the log-rank test and Cox models. Results Between 1997 and 2017, we included 128 patients that were newly diagnosed in our center. According to the Mann-Kendall test, the evolution of the incidence of these cancers in our hospital increased significantly over the study period (Sen’s slope = 7; p = 0.003). The 1-year overall survival was 53.0 ± 4.7%. Poor prognostic factors included age, cancer stage, local cancer extension, and metastatic disease. The independent prognostic factors of survival were age ( p = 0.002), ampulla cancer ( p < 0.001), and metastatic disease ( p < 0.001). Conclusions We found that the incidence of biliary tract and gallbladder cancers increased over a period of 20 years in our center. Further investigations are needed to determine the reasons for this increase. Although new therapies are emerging, the prognosis remains poor for these cancers. Determining risk factors might promote the development of preventive approaches.