title: Whole blood cell counts and leucocyte differentials in patients with benign or malignant ovarian tumours.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of the study was to determine whether ovarian cancer patients had haematological anomalies compared to patients with benign ovarian tumours.
  
  
  METHODS
  Whole blood cell counts and leucocyte differentials were measured in 70 patients suspected of having ovarian tumours. Postoperatively, 20 patients had metastatic ovarian cancer and 50 patients had benign ovarian tumours. A control group consisted of 39 healthy women. Cell counting was performed by the Sysmex NE-8,000 system. The significance of differences was assessed by the Mann-Whitney U-test or the chi 2-test, where appropriate.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The median haemoglobin and haematocrit levels were significantly lower (P-values 0.004 and 0.02, respectively) and the platelet count was higher (P = 0.02) in the malignant group compared with the benign group. The leucocyte differentials revealed significantly lower values for lymphocytes in the malignant group in comparison to the design and control groups (P-values 0.02 and 0.00005, respectively). A significant increase in monocytes (P = 0.002) and decreases in eosinophils and basophils (P-values 0.04 and 0.02, respectively) were found in the malignant group compared to the benign group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results demonstrate significant changes in whole blood cell counts and leucocyte differentials in patients with ovarian cancer. The low lymphocyte counts in the malignant group possibly indicate a primary immunodeficiency as a casual factor.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gynaecology, De Wever Hospital, Heerlen, Netherlands.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: den Ouden
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Ubachs
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Stoot
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: van Wersch
mesh_terms: D001491:Basophils; D004804:Eosinophils; D004906:Erythrocyte Count; D004909:Erythrocyte Indices; D005260:Female; D006400:Hematocrit; D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D018655:Lymphocyte Count; D008875:Middle Aged; D009000:Monocytes; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000097:blood*; D010976:Platelet Count
chemical_list: D006454:Hemoglobins