Affiliations: School of Biomedical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India | Division of Radiation Oncology, Nanavati Hospital, Bombay
Abstract: This study was undertaken to assess the hemorheological changes due to the presence of malignancy in human subjects and to find the usefulness of the hemorheological changes for the diagnosis and prognosis of malignancy and metastasis. 55 (40 males and 15 females) freshly detected head & neck cancer patients, of age group 30–70 years, were considered for this study. Head and neck cancers are a group of cancers having similar characteristics, hence analysed together. Parameters studied include whole blood viscosity (WBV), plasma viscosity (PV), red cell aggregation (RCA), red cell rigidity (RG), hematocrit (HCT), and concentrations of cholesterol (CHOL), total protein (PRTN), albumin (ALBN), triglyceride (TRG) and fibrinogen (FIBRN) in plasma. 80 (55 males & 25 females) blood samples from age and sex matched normal controls were also analysed for comparison. Cases were divided into two groups. One with moderate whole blood viscosity (Group-I) while the other with high whole blood viscosity (Group-II). The results show that there is significant increase in RCA, PV, RG and FIBRN in cancer patients. It was very interesting to note that in spite of significant elevation of whole blood viscosity in Group-II cases, the hematocrit values were within the normal range. Since HCT is the main factor influencing whole blood viscosity, we suspect the role of some other factor(s) in elevating the WBV. It is likely that tumour cells or their products are present in the blood causing increased WBV. It is also observed that patients with high whole blood viscosity were having the disease at a higher stage (Stage IV).
Keywords: Head & neck cancer, whole blood viscosity, hematocrit
