What is gallbladder cancer?
Gall bladder or bile duct cancer (cholangiocarcinoma) occurs when
cells in the gall bladder become abnormal and keep growing to form a
mass or lump called a tumour. The tumour type is defined by the
particular cells that are affected. When cancer starts in another area
of the body and spreads to the gall bladder it is referred to as
secondary or metastatic cancer.
You can access further information about gallbladder cancer,
including risk factors, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment from
Cancer
Council Victoria. You can also
call
our trusted cancer nurses on 13 11 20 for support and to learn about
our range of services for people affected by cancer.
The Victorian Cancer Registry also operates an interactive web
portal,
Data
Explorer, which provides more trends and statistics than published
here.
How common is gallbladder cancer?
In 2024, 317 Victorians were diagnosed with gallbladder cancer. Of
these, there were 152 males and 165 females, representing 48% and 52% of
the total Victorian gallbladder cancer diagnoses, respectively.
Currently, gallbladder cancer is diagnosed at a rate of 3.7 per 100,000
males and 3.4 per 100,000 females. The median age at diagnosis of
gallbladder cancer is 72 years in males and 74 in females (Figure 1
& 2). Accounting for 0.78% of all cancers diagnosed and 2.1% of all
cancer-related deaths in 2024, gallbladder cancer was the 26th most
commonly diagnosed cancer and the 14th most common cause of
cancer-related deaths in Victoria.
Trends in gallbladder cancer over time
Figure 3a shows for males between 2009 to 2024 the age standardised
incidence rate of gallbladder cancer increased by an average of 2.4% per
year.
For females between 1982 to 2024 the age standardised incidence rate
of gallbladder cancer declined by an average of 0.42% per year.
Gallbladder cancer morphology
Figure 4 provides a summary of the different types of cells
(morphology) which have caused gallbladder cancers among all cases. Most
gallbladder cancer tumours, 83%, present as adenocarcinoma tumours.
Geographical variance in gallbladder cancer by local government
area
Figure 5 demonstrates variation in the estimated risk of being
diagnosed with gallbladder cancer, by local government area, relative to
the Victorian average. Red shading indicates areas with higher risk and
blue shading indicates areas with lower risk relative to Victoria.
Gallbladder cancer in people born overseas
Figure 6 shows the standardised incidence ratios (SIRs) of
gallbladder cancers in Australian-born Victorians compared to other
major migrant groups, over the five-year period 2019 to 2023. The
highest standardised incidence ratio (SIR) for gallbladder cancers was
1.9 for males born in the Middle East and North Africa region and the
lowest SIR of 0.34 was observed in males born in the North America
region. The highest standardised incidence ratio (SIR) of gallbladder
cancers was 1.5 for females born in the Southern and Central Asia region
and the lowest SIR of 0.68 was observed in females born in the South and
Central America region.
Gallbladder cancer five-year relative survival
Figure 7 shows the change in 5-year survival for gallbladder cancer,
and the 5-year survival trend for all cancers over the same time period.
It demonstrates that five-year relative survival has increased for
gallbladder cancer between 1985-1989 and 2020-2024 from 12% to 27%.