Lack of relationship between cholecystectomy and colorectal cancer. A case control autopsy study in a defined population.

To study the postulated relationship between prior cholecystectomy and occurrence of subsequent colorectal cancer, we examined the prevalence of cholecystectomy in all patients with histologically confirmed colorectal cancer registered during 1966-75 in the city of Malmö. In addition, we studied the frequency of colon cancer in all females autopsied in 1978-79 with a previous cholecystectomy. Of all 1061 cases of colon cancer diagnosed during the 1966-75 period, 94 (8.9%) had undergone cholecystectomy, as compared with 106 (10.0%) in the age-matched controls. In the female subgroup (n = 503) the corresponding figure for cholecystectomy was 58 (11.5%), as compared with 70 (13.9%) in the controls. The incidence of right-sided colon cancer among the 58 females with previous cholecystectomy did not differ from that of age-matched controls (28.6 and 28.1%, respectively). The incidence of colon cancer among 305 females with a prior cholecystectomy autopsied during 1978-79 was 24 (7 right-sided), as compared with 22 (8 right-sided) in age-matched controls without gallbladder disease. Gastric cancer was more frequent (p less than 0.01) in cholecystectomized women than in controls. These results refute the suggested relationship between cholecystectomy and development of colon cancer in any location.