The Prognostic Significance of Preoperative Anemia in Gastric Cancer Patients.

BACKGROUND/AIM: This study aimed to investigate the prognostic significance of preoperative anemia in gastric cancer patients.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

The medical records of 801 patients with gastric cancer who underwent gastrectomy at the Nara Medical University hospital, were reviewed. Anemia was defined as a hemoglobin (Hb) level of <10 g/dl. Multivariate analysis was performed to identify prognostic factors.

RESULTS

The mean Hb level was 13.1 (SD=2.0). Sixty-four (8.0%) patients were classified into the anemic group. Anemic patients were significantly older than nonanemic patients (p=0.007). Anemia was significantly associated with cardiovascular disease (p=0.041), chronic renal failure (p<0.001), tumor depth (p<0.001), and lymph node metastasis (p=0.001). The overall survival (OS) and cause-specific survival (CSS) rates of anemic patients were significantly lower in comparison to the nonanemic patients (p<0.001). In a subgroup analysis, the OS rate of anemic patients was significantly lower than that of nonanemic patients among patients with stage I and stage II disease. According to a multivariate analysis, preoperative anemia was an independent prognostic factor for OS (p<0.001), but not CSS (p=0.555). The rate of non-cancer deaths among anemic patients was significantly higher than that among nonanemic patients (p<0.001).

CONCLUSION

Preoperative anemia is a simple and reliable predictor of poor prognosis, and it is associated with a higher risk of non-cancer death.