title: Prognostic significance of thrombocytosis in renal cell carcinoma patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Thrombocytosis has been reported in many types of malignancies and has been studied as a prognostic factor. In the present study, we examined the incidence of thrombocytosis in patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) in order to evaluate the prognostic value of thrombocytosis.
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred and ninety-six patients treated by radical nephrectomy for RCC were enrolled in this study. We divided the patients into a normal platelet count group and a thrombocytosis group according to the presurgical platelet count. The two groups were compared pathologically and clinically, including prognosis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thrombocytosis was present in 16 patients (8.2%). Platelet counts had normalized after nephrectomy in all patients with thrombocytosis. There was no correlation between histological type or grade and thrombocytosis. However, there were correlations between thrombocytosis and tumor size and tumor stage. Patients with thrombocytosis had a worse prognosis than patients without thrombocytosis (P = 0.0028). When adjusted for stage or tumor size, the correlation was limited to low stage (stage 1 + 2: P = 0.0041, stage 3 + 4: P = 0.2983) or small tumors (tumor size: </=4 cm, P = 0.0021; 4-7 cm, P = 0.0142; >7 cm, P = 0.8158).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Thrombocytosis is an inexpensive and easy tool with which to evaluate the prognosis of RCC patients in daily medical practice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, Showa University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan. inoue68@aol.com
authors.forename: Katsuki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Inoue
authors.forename: Kei
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kohashikawa
authors.forename: Shunichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shimada
authors.forename: Hideki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yoshida
mesh_terms: D002292:Carcinoma, Renal Cell / Q000097:blood / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D007680:Kidney Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009392:Nephrectomy; D010976:Platelet Count; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016019:Survival Analysis; D013922:Thrombocytosis / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D006454:Hemoglobins