Preoperative platelet count in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: is it a prognostic factor?

Abstract

Preoperative platelet count is a predictive factor for long-term survival in ESCC, especially in nodal-positive patients. We conclude that 205 (×10(9)/L) may be the optimum cutoff point for platelet count in predicting survival in ESCC patients.

Renal cell carcinoma and tumour thrombus in the inferior vena cava: clinical outcome of 98 consecutive patients and the prognostic value of preoperative parameters

“…Another 425 patients suffering from oesophageal cancer were analysed by Feng et al [22] showing platelet counts >205/nl as a risk factor for reduced survival. The ability of tumour cell-induced platelet aggregation is known for decades but the reason for platelet-dependent reduction in DSS remains unclear.…”

Esophageal cancer: A Review of epidemiology, pathogenesis, staging workup and treatment modalities

“…In one study of ESCC, platelet counts were higher in patients with large tumors. It was determined that those patients with platelet counts ≤ 205000 had a better 5-year survival rate than patients with platelets > 205000 especially when nodes were involved [54] . Tumor length is used as a prognostic factor in ESCC but the length cutoff point in predicting survival has been contested.…”

“…Another critical component of esophagectomy is the lymph node dissection. There is debate about which surgical approach is appropriate based upon access, adequacy of the lymph node retrieval, and the lymph node dissection [54] . Each surgical technique have different lymph node retrieval rates based on the surgical exposure of open, laparoscopic or laparoscopic assisted surgery.…”

The “Janus Face” of Platelets in Cancer

“…Since then, an ever-growing body of studies has reported a significant association between thrombocytosis and solid tumors, with a range of thrombocytosis incidence at initial diagnosis of 4-55% [27][28][29][30][31]. This evidence may assume clinical implications, if we consider that a large amount of retrospective and meta-analysis studies point out to the correlation among higher platelet count and tumor progression, advanced-stage disease, vascular thromboembolic complications and poor survival in patients with different solid tumors, such as esophageal cancer, bladder cancer, inflammatory breast cancer and epithelial ovarian cancers (see Table 1) [28,[31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38].…”

“…It must not be overlooked that some investigations reporting a correlation among platelet count, metastasis and shortened survival had some limitations, such as a low platelet count threshold (<200 × 10 9 /L) not clinically correct to define a patient as having real thrombocytosis [33,34,37,42]. In addition, heterogeneity in sample size, clinical stages, treatment and follow-up, smoking history and inclusion/exclusion criteria may make it difficult to establish a univocal association between thrombocytosis and poor prognosis in cancer patients.…”