Abstract

†† Purpose: Since most terminally ill cancer patients die of multiple organ failure, plasma endotoxin concentration levels may be used to predict the life expectancy. This study w as performed to evaluate the clinical significance of endotoxin level in plasma as a prognostic factor for survival in patients with terminal cancer. Methods: This study was conducted with 56 terminally ill cancer patients, abo ve 20 years old, from April 2009 through October 2009. Demographic characteristics, Karnofsky performance status, and survival time were evaluated. We analyzed blood levels of white blood cell hemoglobin, hematocrit, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, c-reactive protein, total bilirubin and endotoxin in each patient. Results: We considered following variable for univariate analysis: plasma endotoxin level, sex, age, WBC, hemoglobin, hematocrit, AST, ALT, total bilirubin, CRP and severity of pain. Univariate analysis did not show a significant association between plasma endotoxin level and survival time. However, in a multivariate analysis wi th factors that were found to be significantly associated with survival sex, WBC count and total bilirubin lev el in univariate analysis, high levels of plasma endotoxin and short survival time were significantly related. Conclusion: Plasma endotoxin level could be used as a prognostic factor to predict the life expectancy of terminally ill cancer patients.

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