Pretreatment plasma d-dimer levels as an independent prognostic factor for overall survival among patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the prognostic accuracy of d-dimer levels for advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). METHODS: This retrospective cohort study included 651 patients initially diagnosed with advanced NSCLC. Patients with d-dimer levels ≥0.5 mg/L were included in the high d-dimer group, whereas patients with lower levels were included in the normal group. Cumulative survival was estimated using Kaplan–Meier curves and compared using the log-rank test. Multivariate analyses were performed using the Cox proportional hazards model. RESULTS: The median plasma d-dimer level in the study cohort was 0.61 ± 0.49 mg/L. d-dimer levels were elevated in 60.98% of patients, and 80.1% of such patients had adenocarcinoma. Univariate and multivariate analyses identified d-dimer content as an independent factor for the prognosis of NSCLC (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.54, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.19–1.98). Kaplan–Meier analysis revealed that high plasma d-dimer levels were associated with shorter overall survival (HR = 1.48, 95% CI = 1.19–1.84). In addition, the receipt of <2 lines of treatment was associated with a higher risk of death than the receipt of >2 lines. CONCLUSION: The present results imply that pretreatment plasma d-dimer levels could represent a prognostic factor for advanced NSCLC.