According to the researchers at the University of Exeter, high amount of platelet in the blood is considerable to be a predictor of all kind of cancers. They examined approximately 50,000 people with age of over 40 in Britain, to find that participants with thrombocytosis; 11.6% of men and 6.2% of women, had a higher risk of cancer. Lung and colorectal cancers were more positively associated with raised platelets. The author of this paper claims that predictive value with counting platelet is as much as the manual screening for breast cancer, one of the most reliable way to find cancer.
The Guardian: High blood platelet count 'as good a cancer predictor as a lump in the breast'
If this hypothesis is correct, we must gain a strong weapon against cancer. Blood exam is now a very easy, cheap, and minimally invasive examination. If doctors in charge are a little more aware of interpreting the labo data, many people will be saved from fatally progressed cancer.
It is still unclear why increased platelets are relevant to a malignant growth. Perhaps, it is associated with the failure of the human immune system. Or, some types of malignant cells may cause a dysfunctional order to increase the production of platelets
Anyway, it is a quite interesting idea that platelet is associated with neoplasms. I will keep an eye to this progressive hypothesis for a while.
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