Most often it is found after symptoms such as abdominal pain, jaundice and vomiting occur, and it has spread to other organs such as the liver.

The outlook is poor for recovery if the cancer is found after symptoms have started to occur, with a 5-year survival rate of close to 3%.

[citation needed] Of note, Courvoisier's law states that in the presence of a palpably enlarged gallbladder which is nontender and accompanied with mild painless jaundice, the cause is unlikely to be gallstones.

A large number of gallbladder cancers are found incidentally in patients being evaluated for cholelithiasis, or gallstone formation, which is far more common.

[13] However, with gallbladder cancer's extremely poor prognosis, most patients will die within a year of surgery.

[25] This research is providing insight into deficiencies in the tumor cell's ability to accurately repair damages in their own DNA.

The tumors in about 25% of patients with biliary tract cancer have some form of DNA damage repair deficiency.

[25] Knowledge of such deficiencies can be exploited to potentially increase response to treatment strategies that are currently available such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or immunotherapy.