Effectiveness of D-dimer in predicting distant metastasis in colorectal cancer

Purpose Patients with cancer often present with a hypercoagulable state, which is closely associated with tumor progression. The purpose of this study was to assess the diagnostic efficacy of D-dimer in predicting distant metastasis in colorectal cancer (CRC). Methods This study included 529 patients diagnosed with CRC at our hospital between January 2020 and December 2022. Plasma coagulation indicators and tumor markers were collected prior to treatment and their diagnostic efficacy for predicting CRC metastasis was assessed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Independent risk factors for evaluating tumor metastasis were obtained by multivariate logistic regression analysis. Results The level of D-dimer in the metastatic group was significantly higher than that in the non-metastatic group (P<0.001). The results of the multiple logistic regression analysis indicated that lower level of prealbumin and platelet, and higher level of glucose, CEA and D-dimer were independent risk factors for distant metastasis in patients with CRC (P<0.05, respectively). The combination of prealbumin, glucose, D-dimer, platelet and tumor markers (PRE2) was found to be significantly more effective in predicting metastasis of CRC when compared to the combination of tumor marker alone (PRE1, P<0.001). Conclusion Plasma D-dimer may be a novel tumor marker for screening metastases of CRC.