abstract: Postoperative venous thromboembolism predicts survival in cancer patients

Postoperative venous thromboembolism predicts survi... [Ann Surg. 2012]

OBJECTIVES:

To determine whether a postoperative venous thromboembolism (VTE) is associated with a worse prognosis and/or a more advanced cancer stage and to evaluate the association between a postoperative VTE and cancer-specific survival when known prognostic factors, such as age, stage, cancer type, and type of surgery, are controlled.

CONCLUSIONS:

Postoperative VTE in oncology patients with limited disease and a complete surgical resection is associated with an inferior cancer survival. A postoperative VTE remains a poor prognostic factor, even when controlling for age, stage, cancer type, and surgical procedure further supporting an independent link between hypercoagulability and cancer survival.