The Predictive Value of Red Blood Cell Distribution Width for Survival Outcomes of Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Patients Treated with Targeted Therapy

Background We aimed to investigate the prognostic value of red cell distribution width (RDW) in metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) patients treated with targeted therapy, including sunitinib and pazopanib. Methods A total of 104 mRCC patients were included. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS), and the long-rank test was used for comparison. Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards models were used to determine the association between RDW and PFS and OS. Results The PFS and OS of all cohorts were 11.8 mo and 25.9 mo, respectively. Receiver operating characteristic analysis revealed that RDW level >= 15.4 was the optimal cutoff value for OS prediction with 73.53% sensitivity and 61.11% specificity (area under curve: 0.64, P = 0.012). RDW level >= 15.4 was found as an independent prognostic parameter for OS when adjusted for the number of covariates, including the International Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Database Consortium (IMDC) scoring system (hazard ratio: 1.125, 95% confidence interval: 1.024-2.235, P = 0.014). Conclusions Our study revealed that high RDW level, a routinely and easily assessed marker, was significantly associated with worse survival outcomes in mRCC patients treated with targeted therapy.