Clinical significance of mean corpuscular volume as a prognostic indicator of radiotherapy for locally advanced lung cancer: a retrospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: Although the prognosis of solid tumors is related to the mean corpuscular volume (MCV), which can roughly predict the prognosis of patients, its correlation with locally advanced lung cancer is still unclear. We evaluated the relationship between serum MCV levels and prognosis in patients before radiotherapy. METHODS: We retrospectively collected the age, sex, smoking history, TNM stage, ECOG score, hematocrit (HCT), MCV, mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), and red blood cell distribution width-standard deviation (RDW-SD) of patients with locally advanced lung cancer who received chest radiotherapy from 2013 to 2017, and analyzed the relationship between this information and the overall survival (OS). RESULTS: Among all patients, 89 were male (79.5%), 23 were female (20.5%), 46 (41.1%) were older than 65 years, and 66 (58.9%) were younger than 65 years. Seventy-four patients had MCV <93.65 fL, 38 patients had MCV ≥93.65 fL, and the median follow-up period was 24 months. The patients with high T stage, high N stage, and high MCV had lower OS (P<0.05). In the Cox regression analysis, MCV [odds ratio (OR) =0.534, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.349–0.818, P=0.01], T stage (OR =0.654, 95% CI: 0.440–0.972, P=0.04) and N stage (OR =0.545, 95% CI: 0.371–0.801, P=0.01) were predictors of prognosis. CONCLUSIONS: In the clinical treatment of patients with locally advanced lung cancer, MCV can be used to roughly predict their survival time.