Correlation between thrombocytosis and the progress of gastric cancer

Objective To investigate the correlation between thrombocytosis and the progress of gastric cancer. Methods The clinical data of 276 gastric cancer patients who had been admitted to Tianjin Cancer Hospital from August 2002 to January 2004 were retrospectively analyzed. Of all patients, 75 were with thrombocy-tosis and 201 were with normal level of platelet. Data were analyzed by chi-square test, and the prognostie factors for gastric cancer were analyzed by Cox regression model. The accumulative survival was determined by Kaplan-Meier method, and the difference in survival between patients with and without thrombocytosis was analyzed by Log-rank test. Results The 1-, 3-, 5-year survival rates of gastric cancer patients with normal level of platelet were 82.4%, 50.5% and 41.9%, and the 1-, 3-, 5-year survival rates of gastric cancer patients with thrombocy-tosis were 74.7%, 37.3% and 25.3%. There was a significant difference in 5-year survival rates between patients with or without thrombocytosis (χ~2= 7.358, P<0.05). Thrombocytosis was correlated with the depth of invasion, distal metastasis, TNM staging and the tumor size (χ~2=6.946, 5.625, 14. 925, 4.028, P<0.05). The result of multivariate analysis indicated that the content of platelet was not the independent factor of good prog-nosis in gastric cancer. Conclusions There is a close relationship between thromboeytosis and clinieopathological factors of gastric cancer. Thrombocytosis may be used as a reference indicator for the prognosis of gastric cancer. Key words: Gastric neoplasms;  Platelet;  Prognosis