PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - TOMOHIRO KUNISHIGE AU - KAZUHIRO MIGITA AU - SOHEI MATSUMOTO AU - KOHEI WAKATSUKI AU - HIROSHI NAKADE AU - SATOKO AOKI AU - SHINTARO MIYAO AU - TAKANARI TATSUMI AU - AKINORI TSUJIMOTO AU - MASAYUKI SHO TI - The Prognostic Significance of Preoperative Anemia in Gastric Cancer Patients AID - 10.21873/invivo.12962 DP - 2022 Sep 01 TA - In Vivo PG - 2314--2322 VI - 36 IP - 5 4099 - http://iv.iiarjournals.org/content/36/5/2314.short 4100 - http://iv.iiarjournals.org/content/36/5/2314.full SO - In Vivo2022 Sep 01; 36 AB - Background/Aim: This study aimed to investigate the prognostic significance of preoperative anemia in gastric cancer patients. Patients and Methods: The medical records of 801 patients with gastric cancer who underwent gastrectomy at the Nara Medical University hospital, were reviewed. Anemia was defined as a hemoglobin (Hb) level of <10 g/dl. Multivariate analysis was performed to identify prognostic factors. Results: The mean Hb level was 13.1 (SD=2.0). Sixty-four (8.0%) patients were classified into the anemic group. Anemic patients were significantly older than nonanemic patients (p=0.007). Anemia was significantly associated with cardiovascular disease (p=0.041), chronic renal failure (p<0.001), tumor depth (p<0.001), and lymph node metastasis (p=0.001). The overall survival (OS) and cause-specific survival (CSS) rates of anemic patients were significantly lower in comparison to the nonanemic patients (p<0.001). In a subgroup analysis, the OS rate of anemic patients was significantly lower than that of nonanemic patients among patients with stage I and stage II disease. According to a multivariate analysis, preoperative anemia was an independent prognostic factor for OS (p<0.001), but not CSS (p=0.555). The rate of non-cancer deaths among anemic patients was significantly higher than that among nonanemic patients (p<0.001). Conclusion: Preoperative anemia is a simple and reliable predictor of poor prognosis, and it is associated with a higher risk of non-cancer death.