Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Mar 7, 2016; 22(9): 2818-2827
Published online Mar 7, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i9.2818
Prognostic value of perioperative leukocyte count in resectable gastric cancer
Xiao-Feng Chen, Jing Qian, Dong Pei, Chen Zhou, Oluf Dimitri Røe, Fang Zhu, Shao-Hua He, Ying-Ying Qian, Yue Zhou, Jun Xu, Jin Xu, Xiao Li, Guo-Qiang Ping, Yi-Qian Liu, Ping Wang, Ren-Hua Guo, Yong-Qian Shu
Xiao-Feng Chen, Jing Qian, Dong Pei, Chen Zhou, Fang Zhu, Shao-Hua He, Ying-Ying Qian, Yue Zhou, Jun Xu, Yi-Qian Liu, Ren-Hua Guo, Yong-Qian Shu, Department of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, Jiangsu Province, China
Oluf Dimitri Røe, Department of Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NO 7491 Trondheim, Norway
Jin Xu, Department of Molecular Cell Biology and Toxicology, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, Jiangsu Province, China
Xiao Li, Guo-Qiang Ping, Department of Pathology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, Jiangsu Province, China
Ping Wang, Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, Jiangsu Province, China
Author contributions: Chen XF and Qian J contributed equally to this work; Chen XF conceived the study and designed the outline of the research; Qian J and Pei D performed the study, analyzed the data, and drafted the manuscript; Zhou C, Zhu F, He SH and Qian YY contributed to the data collection and follow-up; Xu J gave statistical support; Xu J, Ping GQ and Liu YQ provided clinical guidance; Wang P, Guo RH, and Shu YQ participated in the study design and coordination; Røe OD helped in designing and revising the manuscript; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81301896; the Natural Science Foundation of the Colleges and Universities in Jiangsu Province, China, No. 13KJB320011; the Program for Development of Innovative Research Teams, Jiangsu Province Clinical Science and Technology Projects (Clinical Research Center, BL 2012008); the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD); and Provincial Initiative Program for Excellency Disciplines, Jiangsu Province, China.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Science and Research Office of The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest to report.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Yong-Qian Shu, Professor, Head, Department of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, No. 300 Guangzhou Road, Nanjing 210029, Jiangsu Province, China. yq_shu@163.com
Telephone: +86-13585172066 Fax: +86-25-83710040
Received: May 31, 2015
Peer-review started: June 5, 2015
First decision: September 9, 2015
Revised: November 19, 2015
Accepted: December 8, 2015
Article in press: December 8, 2015
Published online: March 7, 2016
Core Tip

Core tip: It has been noted that a subset of gastric cancer patients who underwent gastrectomy with normal baseline white blood cell counts experience mild to moderate leukopenia after surgery. This retrospective analysis investigated preoperative and postoperative leukocyte counts in gastric cancer patients to assess their relationship with clinicopathologic characteristics and their potential prognostic value. The results show, for the first time, that preoperative leukocytosis and postoperative leukopenia significantly correlated with overall survival in resectable gastric cancer treated with adjuvant chemotherapy. This suggests the prognostic importance of perioperative total leukocyte count for operable gastric cancer.