Can we assess the advancements of gallbladder cancer using red blood cell distribution width?

Gallbladder cancer (GBC) is a rare biliary malignancy. The relationship between red blood cell distribution width (RDW) and cancer prognosis has been confirmed by many studies, however, the relationship between RDW and gallbladder cancer is rarely reported. Therefore, we aimed to assess the correlation between RDW and the advancements of GBC in this study. A retrospective study was performed on 108 GBC patients and 119 age and gender-matched individuals who were admitted to the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University from January 2012 to December 2018. The GBC patients had significantly higher RDW(%) levels compared to the healthy controls group (15.7 ± 2.4 vs 13.5 ± 0.6; P = .000). In addition, GBC patients with stage III+IV had higher levels of RDW(%) than stage I+II (16.1 ± 2.5 vs 14.9 ± 2.0, P = .011). Correlation analysis showed that RDW had positive correlations with TNM stage (correlation coefficient = 0.302, P = .002). The cut-off value of RDW was observed to be 14.5% in patients with GBC (area under the curve = 0.757, 95% confidence interval = 0.677–0.838, P = .000). Univariate logistic regression and multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that RDW was an independent risk factor for GBC lymph node metastasis. Our results suggest that elevated levels of RDW are independently associated with GBC patients and may serve as potential markers for the advancements of GBC.