The prognostic significance of thrombocytosis in uterine papillary serous carcinomas.

OBJECTIVES: We have shown that preoperative thrombocytosis (platelet counts >400 x 10(9)/l) is an independent poor prognostic factor in epithelial ovarian cancers (EOC) and is associated with worse survival. In light of the similarities between uterine papillary serous carcinomas (UPSC) and EOC, we sought to determine the incidence of thrombocytosis in UPSC and examine associations with clinico-pathologic features and survival.
METHODS: 68 patients with UPSC were identified between 1996 and 2004 at 3 institutions. After IRB approval, records were retrospectively reviewed and data analyzed using Chi-squared and Cox proportional hazards model; survival was analyzed by the method of Kaplan and Meier.
RESULTS: 8/68 (12%) patients had thrombocytosis at primary diagnosis. Patients with thrombocytosis were found to have more advanced stage disease (p=0.002) and ascites >1 L (p<0.0001). Of the 21 patients with stage IV disease, those with normal preoperative platelet counts demonstrated a greater likelihood of optimal tumor resection to less than 1 cm residual disease (13/15 versus 1/6 in patients with thrombocytosis, p<0.002). Patients with thrombocytosis had a shorter disease-free interval (17 months versus median survival not yet reached, p=0.0067) and overall survival (24 versus 45 months, p=0.0026). On multivariate analysis, thrombocytosis retained significance as a poor prognostic indicator in patients after controlling for age and stage (p=0.04).
CONCLUSIONS: Thrombocytosis may be a marker of aggressive tumor biology in UPSC. Platelet-secreted growth factors may promote aggressive cancer phenotype through contribution to metastasis, invasion, and primary tumor growth.