ASH Clinical News July 2015_updated | Page 38

Written in Featured research from recent issues of Blood PAPER SPOTLIGHT Can Splanchnic Venous Thrombosis Predict Subsequent Cancer Diagnosis? Research has shown that embolic events put patients at an increased risk for developing cancer: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) may represent a marker for occult cancer, and patients with lower-limb deep-venous thrombosis or pulmonary embolism have a two- to four-fold increased risk of cancer in the first year following the thromboembolic event. Less is known, however, about the cancer risk associated with splanchnic venous thrombosis (SVT) – clots in the veins that carry blood through the liver and other abdominal organs. In a recent study published in Blood, Kirstine K. Søgaard, MD, and colleagues sought to determine the link between SVT and the development of cancer – and whether SVT could indicate an undiagnosed cancer – as previous case reports have indicated that SVT is the first sign of liver and pancreatic malignancies. “As we learn more about the association between many types of thromboses and cancer, we also want to better understand these more rare clots and how they can perhaps signal a hidden cancer,” said Dr. Søgaard. “In this case, we had access to comprehensive data that we believed could provide insights 36 ASH Clinical News useful to clinicians caring for patients with this condition.” Dr. Søgaard, of the Department of Clinical Epidemiology at Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark, and investigators analyzed data from the Danish National Patient Registry of 1,191 patients diagnosed with SVT from 1994 to 2011. Information on liver disease, pancreatitis, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, VTE, congestive heart failure, and myocardial infarction diagnosed at any time before SVT were all collected. The SVT patients were followed from the date of first diagnosis of SVT until one of the following occurred: cancer diagnosis, death