Investigating the Relationship between Red Blood Cell Distribution Width and Early Detection of Colorectal Cancer and Colonic Polyps

Colorectal cancer is a common cancer and has a high rate of mortality and morbidity. This can be reduced by screening tests. Some of the studies have recently referred to Red Cell Distribution Width (RDW) as a marker for early detection of various cancers. The aim of this study was to investigate the RDW and early detection of colorectal cancer and polyp.

A total of 90 patients were divided into three groups. One group included patients with colon cancer, another group with colon polyps, and the third group with normal colonoscopy as a control group. Blood samples were taken from patients and mean corpuscular volume (MCV), hemoglobin (HB), platelet (PLT), red blood cell distribution width (RDW), ferritin, serum iron, and total iron-binding capacity (TIBC) values were recorded. Transferrin saturation (Tsat) was also calculated. Statistical analysis was performed to remove the anemia effect of patients who had Tsat less than 20%, which was compared to patients who had Tsat over 20%. For the relationship between RDW and colon cancer, a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used.

The area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC) of the RDW for predicting colon cancer was 0.698, with cut off >14 which had 80% sensitivity and 60% specificity.

RDW can be considered as a parameter for predicting colorectal cancer.