New research from Sweden suggests that men with prostate cancer have a 50% higher risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) than those without prostate cancer. The findings of this study were recently published in the journal BMC Open.
VTE is a leading cause of death among cancer patients as these blood clots pose a higher risk to individuals with advanced disease than those without these malignancies. To estimate the effect of VTE on clinical outcomes in men with prostate cancer, researchers analysed the data from Nationwide Prostate Cancer data Base Sweden.
The researchers analysed a national cohort of men by following 92 105 men with prostate cancer and comparing them with the control cohort of 466 241 men, matched 5:1 by birth and residential region. The analysis found that a higher number of men with prostate cancer (3.2%) experienced VTE as compared to the control group (2.1%). The calculated incidence rates of VTE per 1000 person-years were 6.54 (95% CI 6.31 to 6.78) in the prostate cancer group as compared to 4.27 (95% CI 4.18 to 4.35) in the control group. Importantly, the researchers show that men with prostate cancer have a 50% higher risk of VTE than those without the disease.
The study’s findings indicate that physicians treating prostate cancer patients need to be mindful of the risk of VTE, especially within the first six months of the disease diagnosis. Additionally, the authors concluded: “The magnitude of increased VTE risk among men with prostate cancer seen in our study is lower than that seen for other cancer types as seen in previous studies, and is likely attributable to the high proportion of men with localised disease and at low risk of cancer progression.
Reference
Top
