Impact of preoperative anemia on outcomes in patients undergoing curative resection for gastric cancer: a single‐institution retrospective analysis of 2163 Chinese patients

We sought to evaluate whether preoperative anemia was an important determinant of survival in gastric cancer (GC). A single institution cohort of 2163 GC patients who underwent curative resection were retrospectively analyzed. Anemia was defined as a preoperative hemoglobin level <120 g/L in males and <110 g/L in females. Overall survival (OS) was analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method, and a multivariate Cox proportional hazards model was performed to identify the independent prognostic factor. Anemic patients had a poorer OS compared with nonanemic patients after resection for tumor-nodes-metastasis (TNM) stage III tumors (5-year OS rate: 32.2% vs. 45.7%, P < 0.001) but not stage I (P  =  0.480) or stage II (P  =  0.917) tumors. Multivariate analysis revealed that preoperative anemia was an independent prognostic factor in TNM stage III (hazard ratio [HR], 1.771; 95% CI, 1.040-3.015; P = 0.035). In a stage-stratified analysis, preoperative anemia was still independently associated with OS in TNM stages IIIa through IIIc (P < 0.001, P = 0.075, and P = 0.012, respectively), though the association was only marginal in stage IIIb. Of note, preoperative mild anemia had a similar prognostic value in TNM stage III GC. Furthermore, preoperative anemia was significantly associated with more perioperative transfusions, postoperative complications and several nutritional-based indices, including the prognostic nutritional index (PNI), preoperative weight loss and performance status (all P < 0.05). Preoperative anemia, even mild anemia, was an important predictor of postoperative survival for TNM stage III GC.