Impact of pretreatment thrombocytosis on blood-borne metastasis and prognosis of gastric cancer

Abstract Background Thrombocytosis has been associated with malignancies and poor prognostic implications in cancer patients. In the present study the prognostic significance of pretreatment platelet (PLT) level was assessed with regard to recurrence and survival in patients with primary gastric adenocarcinoma. Methods The authors reviewed the prospective data of 1593 gastric cancer patients who received curative gastrectomy with extended lymphadenectomy. The correlations of PLT level with recurrence and overall survival were evaluated by both univariate and multivariate analyses. Results Thrombocytosis (≥40 × 104 /μL), present in 6.4% of the patients prior to curative surgery, was more frequently associated with advanced T and N classification, larger tumor size, anemia, and leukocytosis ( p