The importance of red cell distribution width on gastric cancer.

Abstract

e15502 Background: Red cell distribution width (RDW) is an elevated marker in several cancers like breast, colon, prostate and pancreatic cancer at the time of diagnosis. Gastric cancer (GC) is the fifth most common cancer and also third leading cause of cancer deaths.We aimed to determine whether RDW values differ between gastric cancer and healthy subjects, as well as to evaluate association between RDW and other factors. Also, we examined other two important inflammatory markers in GC patients: neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) Methods: This retrospective study included 68 gastric cancer patients and 42 age and sex matched healthy controls. The exclusion criteria involved cardiac disease, chronic obstructive lung disease, thromboembolism, chronic renal failure, hepatic disorders, hypertension, acute and chronic infections, stroke, hematologic disease and other accompanying cancer. Blood samples were retrospectively obtained from computerized patient database. Results: Among 110 subjects; RDW, NLR and PLR were significantly higher in GC patients when compared to healthy subjects (RDW: 44,9 vs 41,4 p < 0.0001, NLR: 3,40 vs 1,90 p < 0.0001, PLR: 245,9 vs 131,1 p = 0.007). There was no statistically significant association between these markers (RDW, NLR and PLR) and stage, histopathological subgroups and metastasis stage at the time of diagnosis. Conclusions: Elevated RDW is a simple, cheap and readily available marker and may be useful in gastric cancer at the time of diagnosis. Also, NLR and PLR can accompany RDW in the assessment of gastric cancer. Key words: gastric, red cell distribution width, neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio, platelet to lymphocyte ratio, cancer