Thrombocytosis linked to disease progression in advanced ovarian cancer

Elevated platelet counts may be a useful marker of disease progression in patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer, physicians in Turkey report.

Although thrombocytosis is associated with gynecologic malignancies, its significance in patients with advanced epithelial carcinoma of the ovary is unclear, Dr. Nuray Bozkurt and colleagues remark in their report, published in the January issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology. To further investigate this issue, they prospectively evaluated 37 patients treated at Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine in Ankara.The patients had been “optimally debulked,” – residual tumor was less than 1 cm in diameter – and treated with six cycles of platin plus paclitaxel.Twenty patients had no evidence of disease progression, as determined by second-look laparotomy or according to physical examination, ultrasonography and serum CA 125 levels. The remaining 17 patients had either positive laparotomy results or other signs of disease progression.Mean platelet counts prior to laparotomy were 371 billion per liter in the nonprogression group and 446 billion per liter in those with disease progression (p = 0.03).Results of receiver operator characteristic curve analysis revealed that a cutoff of 380 billion platelets per liter predicted disease progression with 77% sensitivity and 60% specificity.”Thrombocytosis might be an important marker of aggressive tumor behavior,” Dr. Bozkurt’s team writes, “and epithelial platelets might themselves produce mediators affecting tumor growth of cancer.”(Source: Obstet Gynecol 2004;103:82-85: Reuters Health: January 14, 2004: Oncolink)