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Updated:05/24/2022 03:16h
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Men who have prostate cancer have a 50% increased risk of developing serious and life-threatening blood clots within five years of their cancer diagnosis compared to tumor-free men of the same age.
The information published in BMJ Open is important because venous thromboembolism (VTE) – the type of blood clot in this study – is a leading cause of death among people with cancer, and the risk is higher in those who have more advanced disease.
In addition, the risk varies depending on the type of cancer and its stage. VTEs are one of the leading causes of death in patients.
prostate cancer It is the most diagnosed in men. middle-aged and older, which means that many men with this type of cancer could have a VTE.
Some studies have suggested that the risk of VTE is two to three times higher in men with prostate cancer than in men of a similar age without cancer.
However, the researchers wanted more recent data in light of the dramatic improvement in the treatment of men with prostate cancer over the past decade. This includes the widespread adoption of new anticoagulant drugs for other conditions, but which could potentially lower the risk of VTE.
The researchers carried out a large-scale study using national data on men from all over Sweden, collected during 2007-2017, to compare the occurrence of VTE among 92,105 men with prostate cancer and 466,241 men of the same age without prostate cancer (the comparison group).
The results showed that 3.2% of men in the prostate cancer group had a thrombus within five years of their cancer diagnosis, compared to 2.1% of men in the comparison group.
They calculated that for every 1,000 men with prostate cancer, about seven would develop a VTE each yearcompared to about four in every 1,000 men without prostate cancer.
After taking into account factors that could affect VTE risk (such as the presence of cardiovascular disease and socioeconomic factors) in their analysis, the researchers showed that men with prostate cancer had a 50% higher risk than men with prostate cancer. of comparison throughout the five years that the study lasted, the period of greatest risk being the first six months after the diagnosis of cancer.
Since this is an observational study, it is not certain how much of the increased risk was due to prostate cancer itself or to other differences between the two groups of men that might have affected VTE risk and could not be controlled for. . For example, a limitation of the study was the lack of information about smoking and alcohol intake.
However, it is a large study and the data sources used (several national registries) are of good quality. Using data from men from all over Sweden means the results are likely to be an accurate reflection of the risk of VTE between those with and without prostate cancer.
The authors concluded: “The magnitude of the increased risk of VTE among men with prostate cancer observed in our study is less than that observed for other cancer types, as seen in previous studies, and is probably attributable to the high proportion of men with localized disease and at low risk of cancer progression.
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