Background/aim: As D-dimer levels have been reported to reflect cancer activity, preoperative D-dimer levels may serve as a prognostic marker in patients with colorectal cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic significance of preoperative D-dimer levels in patients with stage I-III colorectal cancer who underwent curative surgery.
Patients and methods: A total of 264 patients who underwent curative surgery for stage I-III colorectal cancer between January 2015 and December 2019 were enrolled in this study.
Results: The median preoperative D-dimer level was 0.8 μg/ml (range=0.4-42.5 μg/ml). Based on the results of a receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, we set 1.45 as the cut-off value and classified patients into the low (n=215) and high D-dimer (n=49) groups. The high D-dimer group had significantly lower relapse-free and overall survival in comparison to the low D-dimer group (p<0.0001, p<0.0001, respectively).
Conclusion: Preoperative D-dimer levels can serve as a prognostic marker for stage I-III colorectal cancer.
Keywords: D-dimer; colorectal cancer; prognostic marker.
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