Abstract
PURPOSE: This study examined the association between plasma D-dimer levels and overall survival (OS) in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients treated with osimertinib. METHODS: In this multicenter study, 88 patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) carrying epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations and receiving osimertinib were enrolled. The target independent and dependent variables were the D-dimer levels before osimertinib treatment and OS time, respectively. The t-test or chi-square test was utilized to analyze the variances among various groups. The predictive significance of D-dimer for overall survival (OS) was assessed using Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and the Cox proportional hazard regression model. RESULTS: The selected patients had an average age of 58.01±10.72 years, with females comprising 54.55%. Based on their D-dimer levels, the patients were categorized into three groups: low-level (< 0.6 mg/L), middle-level (0.6 ~ 2 mg/L), and high-level (≥ 2 mg/L). After accounting for possible confounding variables, the Cox proportional hazard model showed that increased D-dimer levels were linked to a greater likelihood of death (HR 2.28, 95% CI = 1.09 ~ 4.76, p = 0.029). Importantly, there was a significant trend indicating that as D-dimer levels rose, the risk of mortality also increased (p for trend, HR 1.15, 95% CI = 1.03 ~ 1.28, p = 0.012). Consistently comparable outcomes were noted in the majority of subcategories. Patients with low-middle and high D dimer levels had a median OS of 28.6 and 17 months, respectively (p =0.014). CONCLUSION: In conclusion, elevated levels of D-dimer in the bloodstream were found to have a significant negative correlation with the overall survival (OS) of patients with EGFR-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who underwent treatment with osimertinib.