Originally published as JCO Early Release 10.1200/JCO.2009.22.8197 on September 14 2009

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a colleague Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Save to my personal folders Download to citation manager Rights & Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Google Scholar Articles by Falanga, A. Articles by Marchetti, M. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Falanga, A. Articles by Marchetti, M. Social Bookmarking                            What's this?

Venous Thromboembolism in the Hematologic Malignancies

From the Division of Immunohematology and Transfusion Medicine, at the Department of Oncology/Hematology, Ospedali Riuniti di Bergamo, Bergamo, Italy.

Corresponding author: Anna Falanga, MD, Ospedali Riuniti di Bergamo, Largo Barozzi 1, 24128 Bergamo, Italy; e-mail: annafalanga{at}yahoo.com.

Patients with hematologic malignancies are at high risk of thrombotic or hemorrhagic complications. The incidence of these events is greatly variable and is influenced by many factors, including the type of disease, the type of chemotherapy, and the use of a central venous device. As in solid tumors, a number of clinical risk factors have been identified and contribute to the increasing thrombotic rate in hematologic malignancies. Biologic properties of the tumor cells can influence the hypercoagulable state of patients with these malignancies by several mechanisms. Of interest, oncogenes responsible for neoplastic transformation in leukemia also may be involved in clotting activation. Epidemiologic data allow an estimate of the incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in acute leukemia, lymphomas, and multiple myeloma (MM). In this review, we focus on the epidemiology, pathogenesis, and VTE management in these three hematologic malignancies. No recommendation for routine thromboprophylaxis in these conditions, with the exception of MM, is available. Large, prospective, randomized clinical trials are needed to establish the best practice for thromboprophylaxis and treatment of VTE in these types of cancers.

Supported by Grant No. 29/07 for oncologic research from the Italian Ministry of Health (A.F.) and by a grant from the Italian Association for Cancer Research (A.F.).

Authors' disclosures of potential conflicts of interest and author contributions are found at the end of this article.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Facebook    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				G. H. Lyman and A. A. Khorana Cancer, Clots and Consensus: New Understanding of an Old Problem J. Clin. Oncol., October 10, 2009; 27(29): 4821 - 4826. [Full Text] [PDF]

				P. Rana and M. N. Levine Prevention of Thrombosis in Ambulatory Patients With Cancer J. Clin. Oncol., October 10, 2009; 27(29): 4885 - 4888. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]