Prognostic significance of the combined use of preoperative platelet count and serum carcinoembryonic antigen level in non-small-cell lung cancer

Abstract

The prognostic significance of the combined use of preoperative platelet count and serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) level in non-small-cell lung cancer patients was investigated. Consecutive 289 non-small-cell lung cancer patients were reviewed retrospectively. Thrombocytosis was defined as a platelet count of at least 40 × 10(4)/mm(3). The frequency of preoperative thrombocytosis was 4.5% (13/289). The 5-year survival of patients with thrombocytosis was 30.77%, which was significantly poorer than that of patients with normal counts (68.65%, P = 0.0010). The 5-year survivals of patients with a normal CEA level and those with an elevated serum CEA level were 74.18% and 55.78%, respectively (P = 0.0019). Patients with both a normal platelet count and a normal serum CEA level had a favorable prognosis, whereas those with both thrombocytosis and elevated serum CEA level had a poor prognosis. The prognostic impact of the combined use of the platelet count and the serum CEA level was more significant than that of the platelet count or the serum CEA level alone. Both univariate and multivariate analyses indicated an independent prognostic impact of the combined use of platelet count and serum CEA levels. The combined use of preoperative platelet count and serum CEA levels might be useful for predicting the prognosis of non-small-cell lung cancer patients.