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Cancer-Associated Venous Thromboembolism

  • Vascular Disease (I Weinberg, Section Editor)
  • Published:
Current Treatment Options in Cardiovascular Medicine Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Opinion statement

Cancer patients are at high risk for venous thromboembolism (VTE) which is considered the second leading cause of death among this population. Both cancer and cancer treatment increase this risk. Since the risk of VTE is not the same in all cancer patients, it is important to understand what factors increase the risk of incident and the risk of recurrent VTE in this patient population. In an effort to combine multiple factors into a single risk stratification system, a scoring system for recurrent VTE risk in cancer patients has been developed and externally validated. While vitamin K antagonists (VKA) or the direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) are first-line therapies for non-cancer-associated VTE treatment, low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH) agents are the first-line anticoagulant for treatment of cancer-associated VTE. In this review, we discuss the epidemiology, pathophysiology, and risk stratification used in cancer-associated VTE. We also discuss the current therapies for cancer-associated VTE and the evidence supporting their use from the literature.

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References and Recommended Reading

Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance •• Of major importance

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Pharmacy, Qatar University, PO Box 2713, Doha, Qatar

    Hazem Elewa RPh, PhD, BCPS

  2. Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Colorado, 13001 E. 17th Pl., Aurora, CO, 80045, USA

    Riham Elrefai PharmD

  3. Frankel Cardiovascular Center and Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, University of Michigan, 2800 Plymouth Rd Building 14 Room G101, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-2800, USA

    Geoffrey D. Barnes MD, MSc

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  1. Hazem Elewa RPh, PhD, BCPS
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  2. Riham Elrefai PharmD
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  3. Geoffrey D. Barnes MD, MSc
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Correspondence to Geoffrey D. Barnes MD, MSc.

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Conflict of Interest

Hazem Elewa and Riham Elrefai each declare no potential conflicts of interest.

Geoffrey D. Barnes reports grants from BMS/Pfizer, personal fees from Portola, during the conduct of the study, and grants from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Vascular Disease

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Elewa, H., Elrefai, R. & Barnes, G.D. Cancer-Associated Venous Thromboembolism. Curr Treat Options Cardio Med 18, 23 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11936-016-0445-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11936-016-0445-y

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