Abstract
BACKGROUND: Pre- and postoperative thrombocytosis was reported to have significant effect on patient survival. However, the definition of thrombocytosis throughout the literature is not unified. METHODS: A retrospective longitudinal observational study has been conducted with the inclusion of 150 colorectal cancer (CRC) patients and 100 control subjects. A new measure of platelet changes at an individual level, named personalized indicator thrombocytosis (PIT) was defined, including 4 anemia adjusted variants. RESULTS: In concordance with the literature, PIT values of control subjects showed a slow decrease in platelet counts, while PIT values of CRC patients were significantly higher (p < 0.0001). More advanced staging (p < 0.0001) and both local (p ≤ 0.0094) and distant (p ≤ 0.0440) metastasis are associated with higher PIT values. Higher PIT values suggested shorter survival times (p < 0.0001). Compared to conventional, a PIT-based definition resulted in approximately 3-times more patients with thrombocytosis. 28% and 77% of the deceased patients had conventional- and PIT-based thrombocytosis, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Compared to conventional thrombocytosis, as an individual metric, PIT values may indicate the condition of patients more precisely. Possible future applications of PIT may include its usage in therapy decision and early cancer detection; therefore, further investigations are recommended.