D-dimer: not just an indicator of venous thrombosis but a predictor of asymptomatic hematogenous metastasis in gastric cancer patients.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Plasma D-dimer levels have been shown to be high in advanced tumor stage patients and can be used to predict clinical outcome in cancer patients. As most advanced tumor stage patients exhibit asymptomatic metastasis, which contributes to early tumor recurrence after surgery, we hypothesized that plasma D-dimer levels can be used to predict patients with potential metastasis.

METHODS:

We enrolled 1042 primary gastric cancer patients in three multiple cancer centers in Northwest China and examined plasma D-dimer levels using the latex-enhanced immunoturbidimetric assay (LEIA) method. Plasma D-dimer levels were compared with the clinicopathological characteristics in this large-scale case-control study with follow up. We also performed regular follow-up studies for 395 patients to analyze the 2-year survival rate and early tumor recurrence.

RESULTS:

In this large-scale clinical study, we found that plasma D-dimer levels were increased in patients with distant metastasis and especially hematogenous metastasis patients. The cut-off value of the D-dimer levels was determined to be 1.5 mg/ml based on the ROC curve, and the sensitivity and specificity for metastasis prediction were 61.9% and 86.6%, respectively. Additionally, patients with high D-dimer levels displayed early tumor recurrence and poor outcome during the follow-up study.

CONCLUSION:

Plasma D-dimer may represent an easy to measure and lower cost marker for the testing of gastric cancer patients to predict asymptomatic hematogenous metastasis.

• Authors: Dongmei Diao, Zhe Wang, Yao Cheng, Hao Zhang, Qi Guo, Yongchun Song, Kun Zhu, Kang Li, Di Liu, Chengxue Dang
• Journal: PloS one (PLoS One) Vol. 9 Issue 7 Pg. e101125 ( 2014) ISSN: 1932-6203 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 24983619 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Biomarkers, Tumor
• Fibrin Fibrinogen Degradation Products
• fibrin fragment D

Topics

• Biomarkers, Tumor (blood)
• Case-Control Studies
• Female
• Fibrin Fibrinogen Degradation Products (metabolism)
• Humans
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Neoplasm Metastasis (diagnosis)
• Stomach Neoplasms (pathology)
• Survival Analysis
• Venous Thrombosis (diagnosis)