Clinical and prognostic significance of plasma fibrinogen in lung cancer

Objectives: Hyperfibrinogenemia is a common problem associated with various carcinomas. The recent studies have shown that high plasma fibrinogen concentration is associated with invasion, growth and metastases of cancer. Furthermore, the recent studies focus on the prognostic significance of fibrinogen in the patients with advanced NSCLC (stage IIIB -IV). However, the prognostic significance of the plasma fibrinogen levels in early stage NSCLC patients (stage I -IIIA) still remains unclear. In addition, it remains unclear whether or not chemotherapy-induced changes in fibrinogen level relate to the prognosis. The aims of this study were to 1) further explore the relationship between the plasma fibrinogen concentration and the stage and metastases of lung cancer 2) evaluate the prognostic significance of the basal plasma fibrinogen level in patients with lung cancer 3) explore the prognostic value of the change in fibrinogen levels between pre and post-chemotherapy. Methods: In this retrospective study, the data from 370 patients with lung cancer were enrolled into this study. The plasma fibrinogen levels were compared with the clinical and prognostic significance of lung cancer. The association between the plasma fibrinogen level and clinical-prognostic characteristics were analyzed using SPSS 17.0 software. Results: 1) The median pre-treatment plasma fibrinogen levels were 4.20g/L. Pre-treatment plasma fibrinogen levels correlated significantly with gender (p = 0.013). A higher plasma fibrinogen concentration was associated with squamous cell carcinoma versus adenocarcinoma (4.83±1.50 g/L versus 4.15±1.30 g/L; P