Preoperative mean platelet volume predicts survival in breast cancer patients with type 2 diabetes

Purpose Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) have an increased risk of breast cancer (BC). Furthermore, growing evidence suggests that activated platelets play a crucial role in tumor and T2DM. Mean platelet volume (MPV) is a platelet index and is altered in patients with malignancies. The aim of this study was to determine whether preoperative MPV could predict survival in BC patients with T2DM. Methods The clinical data of 266 female BC patients with T2DM and 264 female BC patients without T2DM between January 2011 and December 2011 in our center were retrospectively analyzed. Survival analysis was performed using the log-rank test and Cox proportional hazards regression analysis. Results The patients with T2DM had higher MPV levels than the patients without T2DM. Furthermore, MPV was found to be significantly associated with differentiation T2DM from non-T2DM. In addition, survival analysis revealed that the disease-specific survival and overall survival of patients with MPV <= 8.0 fL were significantly shorter than that of those with MPV > 8.0 fL in diabetic patients. Multivariate analysis identified MPV as an independent poor prognostic factor for survival only in patients with T2DM not in patients without T2DM. Conclusions Our study first established a connection between MPV and BC patients with T2DM, suggesting that MPV was an independent prognostic factor and could be the biomarker for prognosis.