Bleeding Risk in Cancer Patients with Acute Venous Thromboembolism in Alberta, Canada

• Author / Creator

  Mansour, Sola

• Background: Cancer-associated venous thromboembolism (VTE) is associated with significant
  morbidity and mortality. Cancer patients are at higher risk of VTE recurrence despite
  anticoagulation and bleeding complications while on anticoagulation. There are some risk factors
  of bleeding specific to cancer patients. We sought to assess the bleeding rates in cancer patients
  within one year of acute VTE over a 10-year period in Alberta, Canada and to identify whether
  cancer site affects these rates.
  Methods: Our population included all adult patients of Alberta diagnosed primarily with acute
  VTE between April 2002 and March 2012. We categorized patients into cancer and non-cancer
  population and we measured the bleeding rates in both groups then stratify by cancer site within
  the cancer group. We used purposeful logistic regression to calculate odds ratios and identify
  some predictors of bleeding.
  Results: Of 5,158 cases of cancer-associated VTE, 127 patients (2.46%) developed bleeding
  within one year of VTE event compared to 441 of 26,498 cases in the non-cancer group (1.66%)
  (p<0.0001). The main site of bleeding was gastrointestinal (91.34%) and the main site of cancer
  associated with higher bleeding risk was gastrointestinal cancer (OR 2.60; p=0.03). In terms of
  predictors of bleeding, the following risk factors contributed to the highest risk of bleeding:
  previous bleeding episode (OR 8.01; p<0.001), anemia (OR 5.72; p’0.001), liver disease (OR
  2.2; p<0.001), alcohol use (OR 1.97; p<0.001) and hypertension (OR 1.28; p=0.014).
  Conclusion: The bleeding risk is higher in cancer-associated VTE and it differs according to the
  cancer site. Bleeding is a big concern in cancer population and more efforts should be made to
  find the safest anticoagulant modality in each cancer type.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • AB-VTE
  • Bleeding
  • Cancer
  • Venous thromboembolism

• Graduation date

  Fall 2018

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R35X25V55

• License

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