Incidence and overall survival of biliary tract cancers in South Korea from 2006 to 2015: Using the national health information database

Background/Aims: There have been no nationwide studies to investigate the trends in incidence and 5-year survival rates of intra- and extrahepatic bile duct cancers and gallbladder cancer. Therefore, our study aimed to describe the incidence and 5-year survival rates of biliary tract cancers by subsites in South Korea. Methods: A total of 86,134 patients with biliary tract cancers were selected from the National Health Information Database. Age-standardized incidence rates and annual percentage changes were calculated. Life-table methods and log-rank tests were used to determine the differences in survival rates. Cox-proportional hazard models were used to estimate the hazard ratio of the patients with biliary tract cancers. Results: The incidence rate of intrahepatic bile duct cancer decreased by 1.3% annually from 8.8 per 100,000 in 2006 to 7.8 per 100,000 in 2015. Extrahepatic bile duct cancer also showed a decreasing trend by 2.2% per year from 8.7 per 100,000 in 2006 to 6.7 per 100,000 in 2015. Gallbladder cancer showed the greatest decline, with an annual percentage change of 2.8% from 6.3 per 100,000 to 5.2 per 100,000 during the same period. The 5-year survival rates were 30.0% in gallbladder cancer, 27.8% in extrahepatic bile duct cancer, and 15.9% in intrahepatic bile duct cancer. Conclusions: The overall incidence rates of intrahepatic and extrahepatic bile duct cancer and gallbladder cancer decreased from 2006 to 2015. Among biliary tract cancers, intrahepatic bile duct cancers exhibited the highest incidence rate and the worst survival rate. (Gut Liver 2019;13:104-113).