Prognostic Role of Red Cell Distribution Width in Solid Malignancies

Background: Red blood cell distribution width (RDW), a parameter that has been generally pointed to differentiate the type of anemia for several decades, which was also found to be a prognostic factor in various types of cancer patients, recent studies found. However, the prognostic value of RDW in cancer patients remains controversial. Here, we performed the study to define the role of RDW as prognostic factor in patients with solid malignancies. Methods: Complete blood count (CBC) were measured in 62 patients with solid malignancies. In this cohort study, subjects was gathered from the period of January to December 2017 to define the subjects’ mortality. ROC curve was used to distinguish the cut off of RDW and analyses with Pearson’s χ2 test and Cox regression test. Results: An amount of 13 (21%) male and 49 (79%) female patients was included into our study. Subjects’ mean age was 49.75±12.3 years old and mean of RDW was 17.09±2.74%. Cervical cancer (19.4%), Nasopharyngeal cancer (17.7%) and Breast cancer (14.5%) were the most types of solid malignancies were recorded. Of 62 patients, 37 (59.7%) patients died during the follow-up. Seen from the ROC curve, we found the cut off of RDW was 16.5% with area under the curve 0.94, RR value was 4.24 (pless than0.001; 95%CI= 2.07-8.69) and Hazard Ratio was 7.94 (pless than0.001; 95%CI= 3.24-9.45) Conclusions: RDW may predict the risk of mortality in patients with solid malignancies and patients with higher RDW are more likely to have worse prognosis than those with lower RDW.