A preliminary investigation of blood cell counts for esophageal cancer screening: differentiating esophageal cancer from gastroesophageal reflux disease.

This article focuses on the diagnostic value of complete blood count (CBC) parameters in differentiating esophageal cancer (EC) from gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and healthy controls (HC). In a retrospective study of 209 EC patients, 198 GERD patients, and 209 healthy individuals, significant differences were found in platelet count, mean platelet volume (MPV), plateletcrit (PCT), platelet distribution width (PDW), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR) among the groups. Notably, PDW and LMR distinguished EC from GERD, with LMR showing the highest diagnostic accuracy, suggesting its potential as a non-invasive, cost-effective biomarker to guide the need for endoscopic examination and improve early EC detection. The study acknowledges limitations including its single-center retrospective design and calls for further multi-center research to validate these findings.