Delluc A, et al. - This research was initiated in order to scrutinize the current incidence of malignancy in unselected patients with first unprovoked venous thromboembolism (VTE). Based on the yielded data, the one-year incidence of cancer after a first unprovoked VTE was found to be 5.06%. Findings demonstrated that half of the cancers were diagnosed during the diagnosis procedure for pulmonary embolism, with the aid of Computed Tomographic Pulmonary Angiography (CTPA).

Methods

• Experts included and followed-up all patients living in the Brest district, France, who were seen in hospitals or the community for a first symptomatic unprovoked VTE event between March 1st, 2013 and February 28th, 2015.
• One-year incidence of cancer served as the primary study outcome.

Results

• The enrollment consisted of 526 patients, mean age 66.6 ± 18.1 years, 246 (46.8%) men.
• In the year following VTE, cancer diagnosis was reported in 26, corresponding to a 1-year cumulative incidence of cancer of 5.06% (95% CI 3.47-7.35).
• A prominent link was discovered between age ≥60, smoking and pulmonary embolism with cancer diagnosis in multivariate analysis.
• As per the outcomes, 50% of cancers were patent at the time of VTE diagnosis, mostly detected on CTPA (Computed Tomographic Pulmonary Angiography) carried out for pulmonary embolism assessment.
• On the exclusion of subjects with patent cancer at VTE diagnosis, the 1-year incidence of cancer was found to be 2.65% (95% CI: 1.55-4.52).
• The multivariate analysis disclosed that only current smoking exhibited an independent connection with a notable 5.4-fold increased risk for cancer diagnosis (HR 5.40; 95% CI 1.31-22.27).
• Herein, cancer was not diagnosed in patients aged 50 years or younger.