The significance of RDW in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma after radical resection.

Background: Red blood cell distribution width (RDW) is a parameter reported in blood routine examination, and has been reported as an inflammatory biomarker. The objective of this study was to investigate the significance of RDW in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma after radical resection.

Method: The relationship between the preoperative serum RDW value and clinic pathologic characteristics was analyzed in 106 HCC patients who underwent curative resection of hepatocellular carcinoma. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox proportional hazard models were used to examine the effect of RDW on survival.

Results: The RDW levels were divided into two groups: high RDW (> 14.5%) and low RDW (≤ 14.5%), (n= 28 vs n= 78). The patients with preoperative high levels of RDW had significantly worse survival than those with low RDW (p< 0.05). According to multivariate analysis, high RDW (HR = 1.89, p= 0.002), TNM stage (HR = 1.70, p= 0.019), tumor size (HR = 1.33, p= 0.045), tumor number (HR = 1.42, p= 0.027) and vascular invasion (HR = 1.64, p= 0.009) were independent prognostic factors of OS.

Conclusions: Preoperative high levels of RDW are associated with poor survival. It might be an independent prognostic factor in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.