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Neuroendocrine carcinoma is a rare, fast-growing form of gallbladder cancer made of small cell or large cell hormone-type cells, often mixed with ordinary adenocarcinoma. It is usually advanced when found and median survival in the largest series was six to seven months. It is treated like other high-grade neuroendocrine carcinomas rather than like gallbladder adenocarcinoma.
Gallbladder neuroendocrine carcinomas were characterised in 2026 from 31 cases among 636 gallbladder cancers: 7 pure small cell, 2 pure large cell and 22 mixed with an adenocarcinoma component (the neuroendocrine part averaging 80 percent of the tumour). The female to male ratio was 5.2 to 1 and median age 58, seven years younger than ordinary gallbladder cancer; high-grade glandular dysplasia was present in 15, six arising in intracholecystic papillary neoplasms. Median Ki-67 was 70 percent, lymphovascular invasion was seen in 74 percent and perineural invasion in 56 percent; 72 percent were pT3 or pT4 against 26 percent of ordinary cancers. Synaptophysin was positive in 95 percent, chromogranin in 75 percent and CD56 in 90 percent; the pRB/p16 pathway was inactivated in 83 percent and p53 was mutant-pattern in 89 percent. Median survival was 6.1 months, with a few unexpectedly long survivors (Reid 2026). In SEER (287 cases, 1975 to 2016) the incidence was 1.6 percent of gallbladder carcinomas, the male to female ratio 1 to 2, median survival 7 months, and one, two, three and five-year overall survival 36.6, 17.8, 13.2 and 7.3 percent; serum chromogranin A was proposed as a marker (Cai 2022). Cancer Research UK lists small cell (oat cell) carcinoma and neuroendocrine tumours among the rare types and notes they are not necessarily treated like adenocarcinoma.
What differs in treatment: these are managed as poorly differentiated neuroendocrine carcinomas of the digestive tract, with platinum and etoposide chemotherapy rather than gemcitabine and cisplatin, and surgery for the minority with localised disease; a population-based analysis found surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy each associated with better survival (Khan 2023, J Pers Med, doi 10.3390/jpm13061009). Mixed tumours are treated according to the higher-grade neuroendocrine component. Well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumours of the gallbladder are a separate, far less aggressive group covered on the neuroendocrine pages.
Under 5 percent of gallbladder cancers in a 636-case pathology cohort (Reid 2026), 1.6 percent of gallbladder carcinomas in SEER (Cai 2022) and 3.3 percent of gallbladder neoplasms in the US National Cancer Database 2011 to 2020 (Louis 2025).
Most pancreatic cancers arise in the head next to the bile duct, which is why jaundice is the presenting sign; bile duct cancers are named by where along the tree they sit.
Same organ: Glucagonoma, VIPoma, Somatostatinoma, Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, Biliary tract cancer (cholangiocarcinoma), Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, Extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (perihilar and distal), Biliary tract cancer (all types), Neuroendocrine tumours, Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours, Grade 3 well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumour, Extrapulmonary neuroendocrine carcinoma, Gallbladder cancer, Gallbladder adenocarcinoma, Papillary carcinoma of the gallbladder, Mucinous carcinoma of the gallbladder, Adenosquamous and squamous carcinoma of the gallbladder, Incidental gallbladder cancer (found after cholecystectomy), Carcinoma in situ and dysplasia of the gallbladder, Cystic duct carcinoma, Ampullary cancer (ampulla of Vater), Resectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, Borderline resectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, Locally advanced unresectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, Metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, KRAS G12C-mutant pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, KRAS wild-type pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, BRCA or PALB2-mutant pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, Mismatch repair deficient (MSI-high) pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, Pancreatic acinar cell carcinoma, Intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm and other pancreatic cystic precursors, Pancreatoblastoma, Adenosquamous carcinoma of the pancreas, Colloid (mucinous non-cystic) carcinoma of the pancreas, Undifferentiated carcinoma of the pancreas with osteoclast-like giant cells, Invasive carcinoma arising in an intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN-associated carcinoma), Mucinous cystic neoplasm of the pancreas with associated invasive carcinoma (MCN-associated carcinoma), Solid pseudopapillary neoplasm of the pancreas
Resection as for gallbladder cancer where feasible; surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy were each associated with better survival in population data.
Platinum and etoposide chemotherapy as for other extrapulmonary neuroendocrine carcinomas, rather than the gemcitabine and cisplatin used for adenocarcinoma.
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Query for this cancer: (TITLE:"Neuroendocrine carcinoma of the gallbladder" OR ABSTRACT:"Neuroendocrine carcinoma of the gallbladder" OR TITLE:"Small cell carcinoma of the gallbladder" OR ABSTRACT:"Small cell carcinoma of the gallbladder" OR TITLE:"Oat cell carcinoma of the gallbladder" OR ABSTRACT:"Oat cell carcinoma of the gallbladder" OR TITLE:"Large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the gallbladder" OR ABSTRACT:"Large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the gallbladder" OR TITLE:"Mixed neuroendocrine non-neuroendocrine neoplasm of the gallbladder" OR ABSTRACT:"Mixed neuroendocrine non-neuroendocrine neoplasm of the gallbladder" OR TITLE:"MiNEN" OR ABSTRACT:"MiNEN") AND (treatment OR therapy OR trial OR survival OR diagnosis). Results are unfiltered search hits about Neuroendocrine carcinoma of the gallbladder, not a curated reading list.
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Bleeding that does not stop by itself, bleeding from more than one site, or new bruising in several places or one large area.
Dose reduce or avoid for CrCl below 60 (carboplatin is the alternative).
The leukaemia risk after chemotherapy was described in the era of mustards and etoposide, and it did not stay there. Platinum drugs carry it, PARP inhibitors raise it about two and a half times against placebo, and lenalidomide with oral melphalan raises it nearly fivefold against melphalan alone. The absolute numbers are small, but the choice of partner drug is sometimes a real decision.
See all on the product pages:Cisplatin·Printable cards in the navigator
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