Application of an elevated plasma D-dimer cut-off value improves prognosis prediction of advanced non-small cell lung cancer

BACKGROUND: Tumor-related coagulation dysfunction has been reported to be closely associated with poor prognosis. The present study is aimed to evaluate the prognostic prediction of an elevated plasma D-dimer cut-off value in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). METHODS: A total of 233 patients initially diagnosed with advanced NSCLC were retrospectively analyzed, an elevated plasma cut-off value 981 ng/mL of D-dimer, which was instead of the clinical cut-off value 500 mg/mL, was used to determine the high and low. Univariate analysis using the Kaplan-Meier method and log-ranking test, and the multivariate analysis using the Cox proportional hazard regression model were performed. RESULTS: Results showed when using the D-dimer value of 500 ng/mL as an evaluation standard, there was no significant difference in gender, age, smoking status, histopathology and overall survival rate between normal D-dimer (≤500 ng/mL) and high D-dimer (>500 ng/mL) group. However, when the evaluation standard for plasma D-dimer was set at 981 ng/mL, the age distribution of the high D-dimer (>981 ng/mL) group was significantly different from the normal D-dimer (≤981 ng/mL) group. Moreover, the overall survival rate in the high D-dimer (>981 ng/mL) group was significantly lower than that in the normal D-dimer (≤981 ng/mL) group. CONCLUSIONS: The present study implied that increasing the plasma D-dimer cut-off value to 981 ng/mL is more beneficial to prognosis prediction in advanced NSCLC.