An increasing number of studies have indicated that red blood cell distribution width (RDW) may be a novel biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of various malignancies. However, to date, data on the association of RDW with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are unclear. Our present study aimed to explore the value of RDW in NSCLC patients. A total of 338 NSCLC patients, 109 small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients, and 302 healthy participants were retrospectively analyzed between January 2016 and December 2018. In the present study, we found that RDW was significantly increased in NSCLC patients. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analysis showed that the area under the ROC curve (AUC) of RDW was 0.753 in discriminating NSCLC patients from healthy participants, the optimal cut-off value of RDW was 12.95, and the specificity and sensitivity were 76.33% and 76.16%, respectively. Further analysis found that RDW can enhance the diagnostic performance of Cyfra21-1 and NSE in discriminating NSCLC patients from healthy participants or SCLC patients. Among NSCLC patients, RDW was significantly correlated with TNM stage, T stage, N stage, M stage, and Cyfra21-1, indicating that RDW may be helpful for predicting the prognosis of NSCLC patients. Our findings suggest that RDW can be used as an auxiliary marker for the diagnosis and prognosis of NSCLC.

越来越多的研究表明，红细胞分布宽度（RDW）可能是各种恶性肿瘤诊断和预后的新型生物标志物。然而，迄今为止，关于 RDW 与非小细胞肺癌 (NSCLC) 关联的数据尚不清楚。我们目前的研究旨在探讨 RDW 在 NSCLC 患者中的价值。2016 年 1 月至 2018 年 12 月，共回顾性分析了 338 名 NSCLC 患者、109 名小细胞肺癌 (SCLC) 患者和 302 名健康参与者。 在本研究中，我们发现 NSCLC 患者的 RDW 显着增加。受试者工作特征（ROC）分析表明，RDW的ROC曲线下面积（AUC）在区分NSCLC患者和健康受试者时为0.753，RDW的最佳截断值为12.95，特异性和敏感性分别为76.33%和76.16%。进一步分析发现，RDW 可以增强 Cyfra21-1 和 NSE 在区分 NSCLC 患者与健康参与者或 SCLC 患者方面的诊断性能。在NSCLC患者中，RDW与TNM分期、T分期、N分期、M分期和Cyfra21-1显着相关，表明RDW可能有助于预测NSCLC患者的预后。我们的研究结果表明，RDW 可作为 NSCLC 诊断和预后的辅助标志物。和 Cyfra21-1，表明 RDW 可能有助于预测 NSCLC 患者的预后。我们的研究结果表明，RDW 可作为 NSCLC 诊断和预后的辅助标志物。和 Cyfra21-1，表明 RDW 可能有助于预测 NSCLC 患者的预后。我们的研究结果表明，RDW 可作为 NSCLC 诊断和预后的辅助标志物。