AIM OF THE STUDY

To investigate the morphology of erythrocytes in the peripheral blood of patients with ovarian cancer stage II and III.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The patient group consisted of 17 women (age 53 +/- 16 years) diagnosed with stage II or II ovarian cancer. The control group comprised 20 healthy women (age 20 +/- 2 years). Seventeen samples of peripheral venous blood were collected from the cancer patients and 20 from the healthy women. These were then prepared for observation by scanning electron microscopy.

RESULTS

The percentages of knizocytes and echinocytes were higher in the blood of patients than in that of the healthy controls. For knizocytes, the values for the mean +/- SD and the range were 2.45 +/- 3.72 and 0-15.7 vs. 0.66 +/- 0.57, 0.1-2.5, with p < 0.01. For echinocytes, these values were 1.94 +/- 1.04 and 0.5-3.6 vs. 1.03 +/- 0.71, 0.1-2.6 and p < 0.01. Acanthocytes were present only in small numbers and were not evaluated.

CONCLUSION

The proportion of erythrocytes with abnormal morphology in the blood of cancer patients before cancer therapy was significantly elevated as compared to that healthy controls.