Volume, Conductivity, and Light Scattering Parameters Serve as Markers of Myelosuppression in Digestive Cancers

In this study, we explored the role of volume, conductivity, and light scattering (VCS) parameters of neutrophil (NE) in monitoring myelosuppression and the restoration of bone marrow function for patients with digestive cancers undergoing chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or immunotherapy.

Fifty-three patients with myelosuppression following chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or immunotherapy and 36 patients who were treated with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) were retrospectively enrolled. The pertinent data including mean neutrophil volume (MNV) and mean neutrophil conductivity (MNC) during the treatment procedure of these patients were collected.

In the tumor therapy group, the medians of white blood cells (WBC), platelets (PLT), NE, lymphocytes (LY), monocytes (MO), and eosinophils (EO) were significantly decreased after treatment, while the MNV.NE and MNC.NE were significantly increased after treatment, with a p-value of less than 0.0001. All these parameters showed good correlation between the two routine blood tests. The change rates of MNV.NE and MNC.NE were higher than of other parameters, with a p-value of less than 0.0001. In the G-CSF treatment group, the medians of WBC, NE, LY, MO, MNV.NE, and MNC.NE were significantly increased after treatment; the p-value of LY was 0.0378, while the others were less than 0.0001. LY and MO correlated well between the two routine blood tests. The change rates of MNV.NE, MNC.NE, and NE were higher than of other parameters, with a p-value of less than 0.0001.

MNV and MNC combined with NE were superior markers for monitoring myelosuppression com-pared to routine blood parameters and exhibited a similar ability to NE in monitoring the recovery of bone marrow function. VCS parameters show the potential to be valuable markers for precision treatment in clinical practice.