Gallbladder cancer and nutritional risk factors in Chile

Abstract

Gallbladder cancer is the most malign neoplasm of the binary tract. Chile presents the third highest prevalence of gallbladder cancer in the Americas, being Chilean women from the city of Valdivia the ones with the highest prevalence. The main risk factors associated with gallbladder cancer are: sex, cholelithiasis, obesity, ethnicity, chronic inflammation, history of infection diseases such as Helicobacter pylon and Salmonella and family history of gallbladder cancer. In Chile gallbladder cancer mortality is close to prevalence level. This is related to the silent symptomatology of this cancer, as well as the lack of specific symptoms. The high prevalence of obesity and infectious diseases present in Chile are two of the main risk factors of gallbladder cancer and Chile has prevalence of obesity close to 30% The aim of this literary review is to inform and summarize the main risk factors of gallbladder cancer that are prevalent in Chile, in order to be able to focus preventive and management interventions of this risk factor for the reduction in prevalence and mortality of gallbladder cancer in Chile.