title: [Could plasma D-dimer levels be a predictive marker for prognosis in lung cancer?].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Plasma concentrations of circulatory markers of hemostatic activation which may be associated with tumor growth and dissemination have been shown to predict prognosis in malignancy. The present study was designed to investigate the prognostic value of plasma D-dimer level in lung cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  Plasma levels of the D-dimer in 138 lung cancer patients [98 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), 40 small cell lung cancer (SCLC)] were measured before the initiation of any therapy and each chemotherapy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were 124 (89.9%) men and 14 (10.1%) women with a mean age of 62.8 years (range 38-84). There were no statistically significant differences among the histopathologic types for NSCLC patients. Stage IIIA NSCLC group had statistically significant higher D-dimer level than stages I-II and IV. D-dimer levels were increased significantly after 4 cycles of chemotherapy in progressive disease. The median survival times in NSCLC patients were 26.6 months (95% CI, 17.6-35.6) and 15.9 months (95% CI, 4.2-27.7; p= 0.037) respectively, for patients with a low D-dimer level (≤ 1.2 ng/L) and a high D-dimer level (> 1.2 ng/L).With the cox-regression analysis, the plasma level of D-dimer and tumour stage were identified as independent predictive factors of the survival.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results suggest that plasmalevel of D-dimer can act as a predictive factor of decreased survival and a poor response to the treatment in lung cancer.
authors: Bahar
authors: B
authors: Kurt
authors: Department of Chest Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Bolu, Turkey. aghhozlem@yahoo.com.
authors: Özlem
authors: Ö
authors: Kar Kurt
authors: Defne
authors: D
authors: Kalaycı
authors: Tuncer
authors: T
authors: Tuğ
authors: Fahrettin
authors: F
authors: Talay
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis; D005260:Female; D005338:Fibrin Fibrinogen Degradation Products / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D055752:Small Cell Lung Carcinoma / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D005338:Fibrin Fibrinogen Degradation Products; C036309:fibrin fragment D