Epidemiologic aspects of gallbladder cancer: a case-control study of the SEARCH program of the International Agency for Research on Cancer

Background: There are few previous epidemiologic studies of gallbladder cancer, a rare but nearly always lethal gastro-intestinal cancer with a demonstrated greater frequency in adult women and older subjects of both sexes, and also in the members of populations throughout central and eastern Eu-rope and certain racial groups such as native American In-dians. Unfortunately, the prospects for the prevention of this form of cancer are poor. Purpose: Our purpose in conduct-ing this study was to investigate possible new risk factors for gallbladder cancer and to strengthen our understanding of established causal agents that may be involved in this dis-ease. Methods: A large, collaborative, multicenter, case– control study of cancer of the gallbladder was conducted i