title: Thrombocytosis as a prognostic marker in stage III and IV serous ovarian cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Thrombocytosis is an adverse prognostic factor in many types of cancer. We investigated if pre-treatment increased platelet counts provide prognostic information specifically in patients with stage III and IV serous ovarian cancer which is the most common clinical presentation of ovarian cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  Platelet number on diagnosis of stage III and IV serous ovarian adenocarcinoma was evaluated in 91 patients for whom there were complete follow-up data on progression and survival. Survival and progression free survival of patients with normal platelet counts (150-350 ×10(9)/L) was compared with that of patients with thrombocytosis (>350×10(9)/L) by χ(2) and logrank tests.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The median age of the patients was 66 years-old. From the 91 patients, 52 (57.1%) had normal platelet counts (median, 273×10(9)/L; range, 153-350) at diagnosis of their disease and 39 patients (42.9%) had thrombocytosis (median, 463×10(9)/L; range, 354-631). In the group of patients with normal platelet counts, 24 of the 52 patients had died with a median survival of 43 months (range, 3-100). In the group of patients with thrombocytosis, 24 of the 39 patients had died with a median survival of 23 months (range, 4-79). In the entire group of 91 patients there was a statistically significant difference of the overall survival and progression-free survival between the two groups (logrank test P=0.02 and P=0.007, respectively).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this retrospective analysis of stage III and IV ovarian cancer patients, thrombocytosis at the time of diagnosis had prognostic value regarding overall survival and progression-free survival.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, University Hospital of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Antonia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Digklia
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, University Hospital of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Ioannis A
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Voutsadakis
keywords: Blood platelets; Ovarian neoplasms; Prognosis; Serous histology; Thrombocytosis