Arterial Thromboembolism in Cancer Patients: A Danish Population-Based Cohort Study

The relation between cancer and arterial thromboembolism (ATE) remains unclear.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate ATE risk in cancer patients.

Danish registries were used to identify all cancer patients between 1997 and 2017, each matched to three cancer-free comparator individuals. ATE was defined as the composite of myocardial infarction, ischemic/unspecified stroke, and peripheral arterial occlusion. A competing risk approach was used to compute cumulative incidences and subdistribution hazard ratios (SHRs). Cause-specific hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated using Cox regression. Among cancer patients, mortality risk was estimated in Cox regression analysis by treating ATE as a time-varying exposure. Patients were followed for 12 months.

The study included 458,462 cancer patients and 1,375,386 comparator individuals. In the 6-month period following cancer diagnosis/index date, the cumulative incidence for ATE was 1.50% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.47% to 1.54%) in cancer patients and 0.76% (95% CI: 0.75% to 0.77%) in comparator individuals (HR: 2.36; 95% CI: 2.28 to 2.44). Among cancer patients age <65 years, 65 to 75 years, and >75 years, this was 0.79% (95% CI: 0.74% to 0.83%), 1.61% (95% CI: 1.55% to 1.67%), and 2.30% (95% CI: 2.22% to 2.38%), respectively. Other predictors for ATE among cancer patients were prior ATE (SHR: 2.96; 95% CI: 2.77 to 3.17), distant metastasis (adjusted SHR: 1.21; 95% CI: 1.12 to 1.30), and chemotherapy (SHR: 1.47; 95% CI: 1.33 to 1.61). Among cancer patients, ATE was associated with an increased risk of mortality (HR: 3.28; 95% CI: 3.18 to 3.38).

Cancer patients are at increased risk of ATE. Clinicians should be aware of this risk, which is associated with mortality.