RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the correlation factors of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid-dependent pseudothrombocytopenia (EDTA-PTCP) in cancer patients. METHODS: The potential correlation factors of EDTA-PTCP such as gender, age, case history, tumor types, therapeutic drugs and duration of EDTA-PTCP from cancer patients were analyzed based on the patient records from October 2007 to September 2009 at our cancer center. RESULTS: A total of 49 EDTA-PTCP cases from a pool of 55 000 cancer patients were collected. No correlation was found with gender (male 49.0%, female 51.0%), concurrent hypertension (20.4%)/diabetes (10.2%) or cancer types (1 - 11 cases each type). EDTA-PTCP appeared at pre-therapy (n = 13) and post-therapy (n = 36). Eleven cases (30.6%) were chemotherapy, 5 cases (13.9%) were radiotherapy plus chemotherapy, 15 case (41.7%) were tumor resection, 5 cases (13.9%) were interventional therapy in 36 patients whose EDTA-PTCP appeared post-therapy. The most frequency use in chemotherapy patients was dexamethasone (87.5%, 14/16), and in surgery patients was penicillin antibiotics (75.0%, 15/20). And its frequency was once (n = 18) and more than twice (n = 31). If the subjects were divided into 2 groups of non-treatment plus surgery and chemotherapy plus intervention on the basis of treatment course, there was a significant difference between two groups in proportion of patients whose duration of EDTA-PTCP ≤ 2 weeks (89.3% vs 47.6%, χ(2) = 10.22, P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of EDTA-PTCP in cancer patients may be associated with therapeutic drugs, but not probably with gender, concurrent hypertension/diabetes, tumor types or therapeutic regimens. Duration of EDTA-PTCP may be associated with the treatment course.
