Coagulation parameters in lung cancer patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Background: Hypercoagulability in lung cancer patients is associated with a high incidence of mortality and morbidity in the world. Therefore, this meta-analysis aimed to explore the correlation of the basic coagulation abnormalities in lung cancer patients compared with the control. Method: PubMed, Scopus, and other sources were employed to identify eligible studies. The outcome variable was expressed using mean ± standard deviation (SD). Heterogeneity among studies and publication bias were evaluated. The quality of included studies was also assessed based on Newcastle–Ottawa Scale checklist. Result: Finally, through a total of eight studies, prolonged prothrombin time (PT; standard mean difference [SMD]: 1.29; 95% CI: 0.47–2.11), plasma D-dimer value (SMD 3.10; 95% CI 2.08–4.12), fibrinogen (SMD 2.18; 95% CI:1.30–3.06), and platelet (PLT) count (SMD 1.00; 95% CI 0.84–1.16) were significantly higher in lung cancer patients when compared with the control group. The single-arm meta-analysis also showed that compared with control, lung cancer patients had high pooled PT 13.7 (95% CI:12.2–15.58) versus 11.79 (95% CI = 10.56–13.02), high D-dimer 275.99 (95% CI:172.9–11735.9) versus 0.2 (95% CI:0.20–0.37), high plasma fibrinogen 5.50 (95% CI:4.21–6.79) versus 2.5 (95% CI:2.04–2.91), and high PLT count 342.3 (95% CI:236.1–448.5) versus 206.6 (95% CI:176.4–236.7). Conclusion: In conclusion, almost all the coagulation abnormalities were closely associated with lung cancer, and hence coagulation indexes provide an urgent clue for early diagnosis and timely management.