Oesophageal cancer is endemic in some regions of the Islamic Republic of Iran and efforts have been made to find factors that play a role in its prognosis.We retrospectively examined the correlation of serum alkaline phosphatase (ALP) levels with several clinicopathological characteristics of 207 cases of oesophageal carcinoma.The mean ALP level in patients with lymph node involvement was significantly higher [141 (SD 77) U/L] than with node negative cancers [116 (SD 63) U/L].Patients with ALP levels > 165 U/L were 3.29 times more likely to have lymph node involvement than patients with ALP levels ≤ 165 U/L.There was no statistically significant correlation between ALP level and sex, age, tumour histological type, site and size of tumour, depth of penetration, distant metastasis, degree of differentiation, presence of lymphatic invasion and presence of simultaneous multiple cancers.Elevated ALP in patients with oesophageal cancer may predict lymph node involvement.
Background/Aim: Thrombocytosis is found to be associated with unfavorable prognosis in esophageal carcinoma. Platelets produce thymidine phosphorylase which is a platelet-derived endothelial cell growth factor with angiogenic activity. Increased platelet count may be translated into enhanced tumor growth. We examined the relation between platelet count and several prognostic variables in patients with esophageal cancer. Patients and Methods: Three hundred and eighty-one cases with esophageal cancer that underwent esophagectomy in a referral cancer institute during a 5-year period were studied retrospectively. The relation between preoperative platelet count and patient age, gender, site of tumor, presence of multiple cancers and clinicopathological characteristics including histological type, tumor size, depth of penetration (T), lymph node involvement (N), distant metastasis (M), degree of differentiation, presence of vascular, lymphatic and perineural invasion was examined. Results: Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) constituted 93% and adenocarcinoma 7% of cases. Most of patients were in stage III, followed by stage II. The mean platelet count was 245±76 (× 109 /L). There was no statistically significant correlation between platelet counts with prognostic factors except a weak linear correlation between platelet count and and tumor size (P= 0.03, Pearson correlation coefficient: 0.16). Patients with adenocarcinoma had a higher platelet count than those with SCC (P= 0.003). Conclusion: Platelet count does not correlate with prognostic factors in esophageal cancer. However, it is significantly different between SCC and adenocarcinoma of esophagus.