The Clinical Importance of Measurement of Hematological Indices in the Breast Cancer Survivals: A Comparison Between Premenopausal and Postmenopausal Women

BACKGROUND Determination of the hematological indices is a useful prognostic laboratory investigation in the cancer research. The neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (LNR), red cell distribution width (RDW) and the platelet distribution width (PDW) are useful markers for the prediction and the prognosis of breast cancer. The aims of this study were to assess the hematological indices in breast cancer women survivals and to show if there were significant differences in these indices between pre- and postmenopausal women. METHODS This observational study was carried out in the Nanakali Hospital in Erbil, Kurdistan region, Iraq. A total number of 120 women with breast cancer under different modalities of management were enrolled in this study. The patients were grouped into premenopausal (group I, n = 30) and postmenopausal (group II, n = 90) women and the hematological indices of all patients were determined. RESULTS Significant low hemoglobin levels and red cell counts were observed among group II compared with group I patients. Group II women had significant high values of RDW and mean platelet volume (MPV) (16.68 ± 2.51 and 9.980 ± 1.271) compared with group I (15.12 ± 2.27 and 9.535 ± 1.082). There were insignificant differences between group I and group II regarding the values of the PWD, plateletcrit (PCT), NLR and platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR). CONCLUSIONS We conclude that the low hemoglobin levels, and the high RDW and PDW are significantly existing in postmenopausal compared with premenopausal survival women, indicating that there are specific hematological indices associated with the postmenopausal survival of the breast cancer.