The impact of pretreatment thrombocytosis and persistent thrombocytosis after adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer

ObjectiveTo evaluate the impact of both pretreatment thrombocytosis, and platelet count reduction post-adjuvant chemotherapy, on survival in patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer.MethodsRecords of 179 women who underwent cytoreductive surgery for FIGO stage III or IV epithelial ovarian cancer and received six cycles of platinum/paclitaxel-based chemotherapy between July1998 and March 2009 were retrospectively reviewed. Platelet ratio was defined as the preoperative platelet count divided by the platelet count after chemotherapy. The prognostic significance of thrombocytosis and platelet ratio, together with various clinicopathological factors, were evaluated by multivariate analysis.ResultsSixty-two of 179 (34.6%) patients had thrombocytosis at primary diagnosis. Patients with preoperative thrombocytosis had greater elevations of CA-125 (p < 0.0001) and a greater volume of ascites (p = 0.007). On multivariate analysis, thrombocytosis and CA-125 elevation retained significance as indicators of poor prognosis in patients with stage III or IV disease. In patients with normal CA-125 after chemotherapy, a high platelet ratio was an independent risk factor for reduced survival (p = 0.05).ConclusionsPreoperative thrombocytosis and a high platelet ratio appear to be poor prognostic factors of survival in patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer who were treated with cytoreductive surgery and adjuvant platinum/paclitaxel-based chemotherapy.

Research highlights
► Pretreatment thrombocytosis is an independent poor prognostic factor in ovarian cancer.
► Platelets may play a role in the development of tumor metastases.
► Platelet count may be useful as a tumor marker in advanced epithelial ovarian cancer.