The clinical course of deep vein thrombosis in patients with gynecologic cancer

The aim of this study was to evaluate the survival of gynecologic cancer patients diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis.

We retrospectively reviewed the charts of patients admitted to our institution with gynecologic malignancy who were diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis (DVT) between 1984 and 1995. Data were collected regarding site, stage, histology, treatment, and proximity of DVT to treatment with surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. This study was limited to cases of ovarian, uterine, and cervical cancer. Descriptive statistics were generated and the survival of patients from the time of DVT was calculated using the Kaplan and Meier method. Cases were then matched by site, stage, histology, and age to controls without DVT to evaluate the effect of DVT on survival. A Cox regression model was used to assess the effect of multiple variables on survival.

A total of 74 cases were identified. Ovarian, uterine, and cervical cancer accounted for 45, 27, and 28% of cases, respectively. Approximately 64% of patients had stage III or greater disease. The median survival of all patients from the time of DVT diagnosis was 7.8 months, with only about 20% of patients surviving at 5 years. Patients with cervical cancer or patients who had radiation therapy within 3 months of DVT diagnosis had significantly lessened survival (P < 0.01) than other patients with DVT. The survival of patients from the time of cancer diagnosis with venous thrombosis was significantly worse than a matched control group without DVT (P < 0.001). On multivariate analysis, there was a twofold greater risk of dying in those patients with gynecologic cancer and DVT.

The development of DVT in conjunction with a gynecologic malignancy connotes a poor prognosis, especially in patients with cervical cancer. It is possible that this poor prognosis is related to the pathophysiology that results in venous thrombosis and not just the presence of cancer.