To investigate the mean hemoglobin volume (MCV) in predicting the prognosis of residual gastric cancer (RGC).
A total of 225 RGC patients who underwent R0 resection in three hospitals in China from January 2003 to June 2015 were enrolled. The 3-year survival time were compared. Two-step regression was performed to analyze the effect of MCV on prognosis in RGC patients.
A total of 208 patients were included in the final analysis, including 135 in Group L (MCV < 100 fl) and 73 in Group N (100 ≤ MCV < 120 fl). In different hospitals, there were different RGC occurrence times and initial gastric surgery intervals and different initial surgical reconstruction methods, the MCV value was not significantly correlated with hemoglobin content (R2=0.397). Comparing the 3 years overall survival time (OS) and disease-free survival time (DFS) with Group L, Group N patients were all better (P < 0.001). The stratified analysis showed that for stage III, with no anemia or mild anemia and chemotherapy, Group N patients had significantly better OS and DFS than the Group L patients (P < 0.05). Two-step multivariate analysis showed that MCV was an independent factor for the OS and DFS, and both the OS and DFS decreased as the MCV decreased (P<0.001).
MCV showed significant heterogeneity in patients with different RGC. Patients with low MCV have a significantly poor prognosis, and the MCV can therefore be a simple and effective indicator for assessing the prognosis of patients with RGC.
The authors.
Scientific and Technological Innovation Joint Capital Projects of Fujian Province.
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.