Analysis of preoperative blood platelet parameters in terms of diversity of epithelial ovarian cancer

Smouldering inflammation, thrombocytosis, and platelet hyper-reactivity are linked to malignancy. The relationships between preoperative diagnostic blood morphology parameters and cancer have been the focus of much interest, because some of these parameters are correlated with advanced cancer stages and poor patient survival rates. This study aimed to perform an observational, retrospective analysis of the intradiversity of blood platelet parameters in patients with different International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stages and different histological types of epithelial ovarian carcinomas (EOC), and also an analysis of the overall survival rate. In all, 94 EOC patients were included in this analysis (23 mucinous, 33 serous, 20 undifferentiated, 14 endometrioid, and 4 clear cell carcinoma cases). Peripheral blood samples were collected and analyzed before drug or surgical treatment. The platelet-to-neutrophil ratio (PNR) was related to the histological type of EOC, particularly mucinous carcinoma. In patients with mucinous cancer, the PNR was significantly lower compared with patients with nonmucinous cancer, and this parameter distinguished between mucinous and nonmucinous groups of patients (area under receiver-operating characteristic [ROC] curve 0.721 ± .056; sensitivity 82.6%; specificity 61%; P < .001; ROC analysis), regardless of the FIGO stage. Moreover, elevated PNR values were correlated with lower survival rate of EOC patients. The reduced PNR, similar to the lower level of cancer antigen 125, is characteristic for mucinous ovarian carcinoma patients. Moreover, elevated PNR index might correlate with poor survival of patients.