Increased platelet reactivity in patients with late-stage metastatic cancer - Cooke - 2013 - Cancer Medicine - Wiley Online Library

open access

Abstract

Platelet hyperreactivity is associated with an increased risk of thrombosis. Cancer patients are at an increased risk of thrombosis, a risk that increases with disease progression. While cancer patients show evidence of platelet activation in vivo, few studies have extensively assessed whether these patients display platelet hyperreactivity. We hypothesized that patients with metastatic cancer would display platelet hyperreactivity, reflecting their associated high risk of thrombosis.......

Study design

....As thrombosis is associated with a wide range of cancer types [7], we choose a heterogeneous cohort of patients, all of whom had disseminated malignancy, to critically examine the effect of metastasis on platelet function. In total, we studied 10 different cancer types, including sex-specific cancers (e.g., metastatic ovarian cancer).......

"...Together these data show significant evidence of global platelet hyperreactivity in patients with metastatic cancer. Further studies are warranted to elucidate the molecular mechanism underlying platelet hyperreactivity in these patients. Also, it remains largely unclear if these observations reflect the effect of malignancy on platelet hyperreactivity, or the effect of platelet hyperreactivity on malignancy, or if indeed both. Global platelet hyperactivity could explain the associated high level of adverse thrombotic events in this patient cohort. Clinical trials of currently available antiplatelet agents may represent a novel therapeutic strategy for the treatment of cancer-associated thrombosis.