Abstract
BACKGROUND: Esophageal cancer (EC) is the sixth most common cause of death from cancer. Altered mean platelet volume (MPV) levels were found in patients with malignancies. OBJECTIVE: The present study investigated whether MPV can predict the survival in EC patients. MEHTODS: The clinical data of 236 consecutive EC patients between January 2009 and December 2009 in our center were retrospectively analyzed. The overall survival rate was estimated using Kaplan-Meier method. Cox proportional hazards models were fitted to model the relationships between patient characteristics and prognosis. RESULTS: Decreased MPV was significantly correlated with tumor location and tumor differentiation (p< 0.001). Moreover, survival analysis revealed that the overall survival of patients with MPV ⩽ 7.4 fL was significantly shorter than that of those with MPV > 7.4 fL. Multivariate analysis identified MPV as an independent poor prognostic factor for overall survival. CONCLUSIONS: Reduced MPV is associated with worse survival outcome in EC.