Clinical significance of serum cystatin C in early evaluation of renal impairment caused by chemotherapy in elderly patients

Chemotherapy is one of the main treatment approaches for malignant tumors. However, the chemotherapy can lead to a series of toxic reactions. Renal toxicity is a common serious toxic side effect of chemotherapy drugs. Since the renal function reserve of elderly patients is reduced, renal function would more likely be damaged during chemotherapy. Therefore, more attention should be given to the monitoring of renal function during chemotherapy in elderly patients with tumors. The role of serum cystatin C (Cys C), as an intrinsic marker of glomerular filtration rate (GFR), is gaining more and more attention. This has been studied more in the monitoring of early renal impairment caused by chronic nephritis, diabetic nephropathy and hypertensive nephropathy (1). However, few studies have been conducted on application value of Cys C, as a marker of GFR in evaluating renal impairment induced by chemotherapy, and its effect remains uncertain. Furthermore, fewer studies have been conducted on the monitoring of renal function after chemotherapy in elderly patients with tumors. In the present study, the evaluation function of Cys C on renal impairment during postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy in elderly patients with malignant tumors was investigated via the dynamic observation of the postoperative changes in serum Cys C, serum creatinine (SCr), blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and endogenous creatinine clearance rate (CCr) in elderly patients with malignant tumor before and after chemotherapy