Why the study?
Does an episode of venous thromboembolism increase the risk of a second cancer in patients who already have a cancer diagnosis?
Does an episode of venous thromboembolism increase the risk of a second cancer in patients who already have a cancer diagnosis?
An episode of VTE in patients with a known malignancy is associated with a 30% increased risk of developing a second cancer, especially when VTE occurs more than a year after the initial diagnosis.
May warrant closer surveillance for second cancers after VTE in known malignancy; leaves open causality and need for prospective validation before practice change.
Although venous thromboembolism (VTE) is common in patients with cancer, it is not known if it is associated with risk of a second malignancy. Using the Danish Cancer Registry and National Registry of Patients, we studied a population-based cohort of 6285 patients with cancer who had an episode of VTE. The risk of a second cancer was compared with that among 30 713 cancer patients without VTE, matched for age, sex, cancer site and year of diagnosis. Overall, the relative risk for a second cancer diagnosis was 1.3 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.1-1.4). However, the excess risk varied with the time from the initial cancer diagnosis to the thrombotic event. If the thrombotic episode occurred within the first year, the relative risk for a second cancer was 1.0 (95% CI 0.9-1.3), but if the VTE occurred more than 1 year after the initial cancer, the overall relative risk for a second cancer was 1.4 (95% CI 1.2-1.7), with strong associations for cancers of the digestive organs, ovary and prostate. The association between VTE and subsequent incident cancer extends to patients who already have had a cancer diagnosis.
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Sørensen et al. (2005) studied this question.
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