Anaemia is of prognostic significance in patients with oesophageal adenocarcinoma.

Anaemia is common in a wide range of malignancies and individual studies have demonstrated it to be an independent prognostic marker for survival in certain cancer types. The study population consisted of 171 patients: 77 anaemic and 94 non-anaemic. Sixty per cent of the study population had adenocarcinoma with 37% having squamous cell carcinoma. Late-stage disease occurred in 80% of individuals. There was no significant difference in survival times between the two groups (p=0.1), and after adjusting for confounding factors including age, sex, stage and physical status (p=0.8). Anaemic individuals with adenocarcinoma suffered a poorer survival probability compared to those with normal haemoglobon level (p=0.02). Anaemia is common at diagnosis in oesophageal cancer and was found to be a significant prognostic indicator of survival in adenocarcinoma, but not squamous cell carcinoma.