key: cord-0731058-6627zrfl
authors: Obispo, Berta; Rogado, Jacobo; Muñoz-Rivas, Nuria; Pangua, Cristina; Serrano, Gloria; Lara, Miguel Angel
title: Prevalence of thrombosis in patients with cancer and SARS-CoV-2 infection
date: 2021-09-25
journal: Med Clin (Barc)
DOI: 10.1016/j.medcli.2021.08.002
sha: 4aa0983eb8ac83600efe3e3bcc2e5b42da53ab39
doc_id: 731058
cord_uid: 6627zrfl

Background: Covid-19 infection and cancer are associated with an increased risk of thrombotic events. The aim of our study is to analyze the cumulative incidence of thrombosis in oncological patients with Covid-19 and detect differences with the non-cancer Covid-19 population. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 1127 medical records of all admitted patients to ward of the Hospital Universitario Infanta Leonor (Madrid, Spain), including 86 patients with active cancer between March 5th, 2020 to May 3rd, 2020. We analyzed cumulative incidence of thrombosis and risk factors associated to the cancer patient’s cohort. Results: We diagnosed 10 thrombotic events in 8 oncological patients with a cumulative incidence of 9.3%. A statistically significant association was found regarding thrombosis and history of obesity (p=0,009). No differences related to cumulative incidence of thrombosis between both groups were detected (9.8%vs 5.80%) in our hospital (p = 0.25). Conclusion: No significant differences were observed in the cumulative incidence of thrombosis in the two study groups. The thrombotic effect of Covid-19 is not as evident in cancer patients and does not seem to be added to its prothrombotic activity.

We retrospectively reviewed 1127 medical records of all admitted patients to ward of the Hospital Universitario Infanta Leonor (Madrid, Spain), including 86 patients with active cancer between March 5th, 2020 to May 3rd, 2020. We analyzed cumulative incidence of thrombosis and risk factors associated to the cancer patient's cohort.

We diagnosed 10 thrombotic events in 8 oncological patients with a cumulative incidence of 9.3%. A statistically significant association was found regarding thrombosis and history of obesity (p=0,009). No differences related to cumulative incidence of thrombosis between both groups were detected (9.8%vs 5.80%) in our hospital (p = 0.25).

No significant differences were observed in the cumulative incidence of thrombosis in the two study groups. The thrombotic effect of Covid-19 is not as evident in cancer patients and does not seem to be added to its prothrombotic activity.

Keywords: Covid-19; Cancer; Thrombosis; Cumulative Incidence; Mortality.

Introducción: La infección por Covid-19 y el cáncer se asocian a mayor riesgo de eventos trombóticos. El objetivo de nuestro estudio es analizar la incidencia acumulada de trombosis en pacientes oncológicos con Covid-19 y detectar diferencias con la población sin cáncer y Covid-19. Métodos: Revisamos retrospectivamente 1127 historias clínicas de los pacientes ingresados en del Hospital Infanta Leonor (Madrid, España), incluyendo 86 pacientes con cáncer activo entre el 5 de marzo y el 3 de mayo de 2020. Se analizó la incidencia acumulada de trombosis y los factores de riesgo asociados a la cohorte de pacientes con cáncer. Resultados: Diagnosticamos 10 eventos trombóticos en 8 pacientes oncológicos con una incidencia acumulada del 9,3%. Se encontró una asociación estadísticamente significativa entre trombosis y obesidad (p=0,009). No se detectaron diferencias relacionadas con la incidencia acumulada de trombosis entre ambos grupos (9,8%vs 5,80%, p = 0,25). Conclusión: No se observaron diferencias significativas en la incidencia acumulada de trombosis en los dos grupos de estudio. El efecto trombótico de Covid-19 no es tan evidente en los pacientes con cáncer y no parece sumarse a su actividad protrombótica. There are multiple evidences of the association with the appearance of thrombotic events in a high percentage of general Covid-19 patients [4] [5] [6] . Oncological patients have an increased risk of thrombosis associated with the tumour disease (cancer associated thrombosis) and with oncological treatments 7 , so it seems reasonable to think that patients with cancer and Covid-19 infection have a higher risk of thrombosis with respect to the general population.

The aim of our study is to analyze the cumulative incidence of thrombotic events in patients with cancer and Covid-19 infection comparing with the general Covid-19 patients and risk factors for thrombosis in both groups.

Single cohort, longitudinal study of patients with Covid-19 admitted to the general ward of the Hospital Universitario Infanta Leonor (Madrid, Spain) between March 5th, 2020 to May 3rd, 2020. We retrospectively reviewed 1127 medical records until data cut off, including 86 patients with active cancer. We define active cancer as that diagnosed in the five years prior to inclusion in the study. We analyzed cumulative incidence of thrombosis in cancer patients and Covid-19 infection and its difference between this cohort and the non-cancer patients. We also study the thrombosis risk factors associated in the cancer patient's cohort.

Covid-19 diagnosis was made based on WHO criteria and/or confirmed by RT-PCR of nasopharyngeal specimens. Severe Covid-19 infection was defined as presence of bilateral pneumonia with CURB-65 scale score ≥ 2/FiO2 ≥ 35% or admission to an Intensive Care Unit (ICU).Thrombosis diagnosis was made after performing additional image tests when clinically mandatory. We followed our centre's protocol recommendations, treating all patients with low-molecular-weight heparin at prophylactic or intermediate doses according to D Dimer levels (< or >1000 μg/dl) . 

A total of 1,127 Covid-19 patients were admitted to our institution until data cut off. Eighty-six of these patients were oncological patients at Medical Oncology Department in Hospital Universitario Infanta Leonor in Madrid (Spain). We compared the incidence of thrombosis between the two groups and risk factors.

Thrombotic incidence in general patients and differences with cancer patients:

In general population, a total of 70 thrombotic events were diagnosed in 61 patients (5.8%) of the total 1041 Covid-19 patients without cancer. In this group, 43 patients (62%) suffered venous thrombotic events, 6 (9%) were diagnosed with both venous and arterial complications (concurrently in most cases), 18 (26%) had only arterial events, and 2 patients suffered microvascular ischemic lesions.

We detected no differences related cumulative incidence of thrombosis between cancer patients and general patients: 9.8% (8 of 86 total cancer patients) in cancer patients versus 5.8%

(61 of 1041 total patients) in general patients in our hospital (p = 0.25).

We compared comorbidities between the two groups. We found a statistically significant relationship with a history of chronic kidney disease (1/69 general thrombosis patients versus 2/8 oncological thrombosis patients, p=0,02). No statistically significant relationship was found with the rest of the comorbidities (Table 1) .

Regarding ICU admissions:Thirteen patients (19%) of general population were admitted to the ICU during hospitalization. However, none of the cancer patients were admitted to the intensive care unit.

We included 86 cancer patients whose median age was 70 years old with higher prevalence of males (n = 55, 63.9%), and most patients metastatic disease (n = 33, 38,3%). Most frequent primary sites of cancer were: lung, colorectal and prostate (26.7%, 22,1%, 17,4% respectively).

In this cohort, we diagnosed 10 thrombotic events in 8 of the total 86 patients with a cumulative incidence of 9.3%. Five patients suffered pulmonary embolism, 1 patient deep vein thrombosis, 2 patients acute coronary sindrome and 2 patients an ischemic stroke.

Among the classical thrombosis risk factors we have found a statistically significant association with obesity (37% thrombosis patients versus 7,6% without thrombosis, p=0,009). Atrend towards significance was detected regarding a previous history of chronic kidney disease (25% thrombosis group versus 7,6% without thrombosis p=0.108).

On the other hand, no statistically significant differences were found on the remaining risk factors ( Table 2) .

In the cancer patients cohort, we detected a statistically significant difference between the number of lymphocytes (1400 in patients with thrombosis versus 800 10 3 microlitres/L in patients without thrombosis, p=0.0135). Nevertheless, no statistically significance differences were found in all other parameters (Table 3) .

Several studies have confirmed that Covid-19 induces hyperinflammation leading to procoagulant states and thus, increases the incidence of thrombosis 9 . We also know that the risk of J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f thrombosis is increased in patients with cancer intrinsically, therefore, the aim of our study was to assess the prevalence of thrombosis in the general population compared to cancer´s patients.

In our study, we found a high percentage of in-hospital thrombosis in all patients. This higher incidence of thrombosis was detected despite the fact that these patients received prophylactic and intermediate doses of treatment with low molecular weight heparin, with an incidence of 5.8% in patients without cancer versus 9.8% in patients with cancer, but without showing statistically significant differences between both subgroups (p = 0.25).

There are few reports so far describing the incidence of thrombosis in patients with and cancer. In the work developed by Patell R. et al. , a unicentric cohort study with a number of patients considerably lower than our work, they found during the first 28 days after Covid-19 diagnosis a cumulative incidence of thrombosis of 18.2% in general patients and 14.2% in oncological patients. These incidences are higher than ours, probably because of the long followup period, and because it also includes hematological patients and patients requiring admission to the ICU that are excluded in our study 10 .

In the study by Patell R et al, no risk factors of thrombosis in this population profile were evaluated. We detected that oncological patients with obesity history or lymphocytes above 1400 µL/L had a greater risk of thrombosis.

It is worth noting the limitations of our study, which is retrospective and unicentric, so we could be underestimating the incidence of thrombosis. Furthermore, we do not know whether the two groups are completely homogeneous, so it is difficult to conclude whether cancer is associated with higher rates of thrombosis in Covid19 patients.

Finally, as a conclusion, we could define that the thrombotic effect of Covid-19 is not so evident in cancer patients and does not appear to add to the prothrombotic activity of cancer. In our study, we did not observe significant differences in the incidence of thrombosis in the two study groups. A classic factor of thrombosis such as obesity is the most outstanding one as a predictor of the development of thrombotic events in our patients. 

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