The importance of red cell distribution width on gastric cancer.

e15502Background: Red cell distribution width (RDW) is an elevated marker in several cancers like breast, colon, prostate and pancreatic cancer at the time of diagnosis. Gastric cancer (GC) is the fifth most common cancer and also third leading cause of cancer deaths.We aimed to determine whether RDW values differ between gastric cancer and healthy subjects, as well as to evaluate association between RDW and other factors. Also, we examined other two important inflammatory markers in GC patients: neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) Methods: This retrospective study included 68 gastric cancer patients and 42 age and sex matched healthy controls. The exclusion criteria involved cardiac disease, chronic obstructive lung disease, thromboembolism, chronic renal failure, hepatic disorders, hypertension, acute and chronic infections, stroke, hematologic disease and other accompanying cancer. Blood samples were retrospectively obtained from computerized patient database. Re...