Preoperative Monocyte Count as a Mirror of Tumor Characteristics and Likelihood of Recurrence in Endometrial Carcinoma Cases

BACKGROUND: Recently preoperative hematologic parameters have attracted attention for their capacity to predict tumor characteristics and recurrence. Considering the established role of tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) in the tumor microenvironment, we evaluated the role of the preoperative monocyte count as a surrogate for TAM. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 166 patients with histopathologically proven endometrial cancers from January 2011 to March 2015 and assessed any association of preoperative monocyte count with tumor characteristics and recurrence. RESULTS: The majority of patients had tumors with the following characteristics: endometrioid histology (83.1%), low grade (grade I-II, 71.7%) and stage I disease (68.1%). The mean ± SD monocyte, neutrophil and platelet counts were 8.23 x 10(9)/L ± 3.56 x 10(9)/L, 64.0 x 10(9)/L ± 11.3 x 10(9)/L and 261.6 x 10(9)/L ± 74.6 x 10(9). Statistically significant associations were noted with between preoperative monocyte count and tumor stage (p value=0.044), recurrence (p value<0.001) and omentum involvement (p value< 0.001) but not with tumor grade (p value=0.897), depth of myometrium involvement (p value=0.479), lymphovascular space invasion (p value=0.269) and lymph node involvement (p value=0.377). CONCLUSION: An elevated preoperative monocyte count is related to more aggressive tumors and a higher recurrence rate in patients with endometrial cancer.