The incidence of venous thromboembolism is not lowin Korean patients with advanced pancreatic cancer

BackgroundPancreatic cancer is among the most common malignancies associated with venous thromboembolism (VTE).Asian patients are known to have a lower incidence of VTE compared to Caucasian patients.However, few studies have investigated the incidence of VTE in Asian patients with pancreatic cancer. MethodsThis retrospective review of medical records was performed on 505 patients with histopathologically proven advanced stage pancreatic cancer, from January 2006 to December 2012, at Soonchunhyang University Hospitals. ResultsNinety-four patients (18.6%) had at least one pulmonary embolism (PE), deep vein thrombosis (DVT), or splanchnic vein thrombosis (SVT); 38 patients had isolated SVT; and 56 patients (11.1%) had at least one classic VTE (PE and/or DVT of lower extremities).Patients with more advanced stages of pancreatic cancer (distant metastatic stage, recurrence) or who had received chemotherapy had a higher incidence of classic VTE.Patients who were simultaneously diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and classic VTE had a poorer prognosis than patients with subsequent VTEs.There was a significant difference in overall survival (OS) between the presence and absence of a concurrent classic VTE diagnosis (median: OS, 2.1 mo vs. 10.7 mo; P＜0.001).Even when VTE included SVT, the result was similar (P＜0.001). ConclusionIn Korean patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, the incidence of VTEs is comparable to that of Caucasian patients.We also found that pancreatic cancer patients with concurrent VTEs had a poor prognosis compared to patients who developed VTEs later.