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Thrombocytosis as a prognostic factor in women with cervical cancer
1Department of Gynaecological Oncology, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England.
Background:
Thrombocytosis (a platelet count > 400 x 10(9)/l) is found frequently in association with malignant disease and recently has been suggested to be a poor prognostic indicator in patients with cervical cancer. The authors decided to see if these findings could be verified.
Methods:
The pretreatment platelet counts of 643 women treated for cervical cancer between 1983 and 1992 were reviewed and correlated to each patient's age, stage of disease, histologic type, node status (when available), and outcome. Differences between groups were analyzed using the chi 2 test, and survival was compared using the log rank test on Kaplan-Meier life tables.
Results:
The 5-year survival rate for patients with thrombocytosis was 57.1%, which was significantly worse than the 76.5% for those with normal platelet counts (P < 0.01). When adjusted for stage of disease, however, thrombocytosis failed to have a significant effect on patient survival. There was also no relation between thrombocytosis and the incidence of positive lymph nodes.
Conclusion:
Thrombocytosis was not found to be an independent prognostic factor in patients with carcinoma of the cervix in this series of 643 patients.