The mean reticulocyte volume is a valuable index in early diagnosis of cancer-related anemia

Background Cancer-related anemia (CRA) is a functional iron deficient anemia, and the early diagnosis will improve the prognosis of the patients. This prospective study aimed to investigate the utility of mean reticulocyte volume (MRV) in the early diagnosis of CRA. Methods A total of 284 first-diagnosed cancer patients were enrolled, and the subjects were assigned anemia and non-anemia groups by hemoglobin (Hb) concentrations. The mature RBC and reticulocyte indices were detected with BC-7500 blood analyzer, and the MRV, reticulocyte hemoglobin (RHE) content, and reticulocyte production index (RPI) were obtained. ROC curves were constructed in identifying anemia diagnosed by the combination of RHE and RPI. An adjusted multivariate analyse and quartiles were used to assess the associations of MRV with early CRA diagnosed by combining RBC indices (MCV, MCH and MCHC), respectively. Results No statistical differences were observed in MCV, RHE and MRV levels between anemia and non-anemia subjects ( p > 0.05). MRV exhibited a complete or high correlation with the RHE levels ( r = 1.000, p < 0.001), or MCV, MCH, and MCHC in anemia patients ( R : 0.575–0.820, p < 0.001). ROC curves analyse indicated a highest area under curve of 0.829 (95% CI 0.762–0.895) and 0.884 (95% CI 0.831–0.936) for MRV in identifying anemia in male and female patients, respectively ( p < 0.001). When the optimal cutoff values of MRV were set at 100.95 fl in males and 98.35 fl in females, the sensitivity and specificity were 1.00 and 0.68, and 1.00 and 0.73, respectively. The regression analyse showed that, when being as a categorical variable, MRV showed an odds ratio of 19.111 (95% CI 6.985–52.288; p < 0.001) for the incidence of CRA. The incidence of overall anemia demonstrated a more significant decrease trend along with the increase of MRV quartiles (p-trend < 0.001). Conclusion This study revealed that the MRV can be used as a convenient and sensitive index in early diagnosis of cancer-related anemia, and decreased MRV level may be the powerful predictor of overt anemia in cancer patients.