BACKGROUND: Red blood cell distribution width (RDW) is a parameter of the complete blood count (CBC) test. Recent evidence suggests that pretreatment RDW is associated with patient survival in various malignant tumors. We explored the association of pretreatment RDW and other red blood cell (RBC) parameters with clinical parameters and assessed their prognostic impact on overall survival (OS) in patients with glioblastoma (GBM).

MATERIAL AND METHODS: In total, 109 patients with newly diagnosed GBM were retrospectively reviewed. The Cox proportional hazards regression model and Kaplan-Meier method were used to examine the survival function of pretreatment RDW, mean cell volume (MCV), hemoglobin (HGB), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), RBC count, and hematocrit (HCT) values in patients with newly diagnosed GBM.

RESULTS: Univariate analysis showed that MCV, MCHC, and RDW were associated with overall survival (OS). However, only RDW remained significant in multivariate analysis. The Kaplan-Meier survival curves showed that patients belonging to the high-RDW group had a worse median OS (293 days versus 375 days, P=0.023) than those belonging to the low-RDW group.

CONCLUSIONS: The present study showed that pretreatment RDW was superior to MCV and MCHC as a prognostic predictor of clinical outcome in patients newly diagnosed with GBM. Pretreatment RDW was derived directly from the CBC test, which can be easily performed in clinical practice. Therefore, pretreatment RDW values can provide additional prognostic information for patients with GBM. Further larger and prospective studies are needed to confirm these findings and to investigate the mechanism by which of RDW is associated with prognosis in patients with GBM.

Keywords: Erythrocyte Indices, Survival