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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
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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