Prognostic significance of preoperative platelet count in patients with gallbladder cancer

AIM: To investigate the prognostic value of preoperative platelet count (PLT) in patients with primary gallbladder cancer (GBC). METHODS: The clinical data of 223 GBC patients after surgery was retrospectively reviewed. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted to verify the optimum cutoff point for PLT. Univariate and multivariate survival analyses were performed to identify the factors associated with the prognosis. RESULTS: The ROC curve showed that the optimum cutoff point for PLT was 178 x 10(9)/L, and the entire cohort was stratified into group A with PLT > 178 x 10(9)/L and group B with PLT <= 178 x 10(9)/L. Group A had a better survival than group B (P < 0.001). There was an obvious difference between the two groups in terms of the differentiation degree, advanced tumor stage, lymph node metastasis (P < 0.001) and pathological type (P < 0.05). The univariate analysis demonstrated that tumor location, differentiation degree, TNM stage, Nevin stage, lymph node metastasis and PLT were associated with overall survival (P < 0.001). In the multivariate analysis, PLT (P = 0.032), lymph node metastasis (P = 0.007), tumor location (P < 0.001) and TNM stage (P = 0.005) were independent prognostic factors. CONCLUSION: PLT is closely correlated with GBC prognosis and could be used to identify the population with a poorer prognosis after surgery.