Incidence and factors associated with venous thromboembolism in women with gynecologic cancer

Introduction: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a frequent clinical event in patients with gynecologic cancer. However, studies that exclusively address the incidence of VTE according the type of gynecologic cancer are poorly reported. Objective: To analyze the incidence of VTE and the associated factors in women with different types of gynecologic cancer. Results: A total of 1.885 women with gynecologic cancer was included. Among them, 40.8% (769) experienced venous thromboembolic events, most of them in the first two years after cancer diagnosis. There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence of VTE according to the type of gynecologic cancer. However, we observed statistically significant difference in the incidence of pulmonary embolism when stratified by type of thromboembolic events. Multiple regression analysis identified the absence of cancer treatment as a factor associated with VTE in patients with gynecologic cancer (OR = 3.14, CI 95% 2.50-3.96), particularly in patients with cervical (OR = 2.48, CI 95% 1.81-3.42), endometrial (OR = 4.18, CI 95% 2.46-7.10), and ovarian (OR = 3.55, CI 95% 2.22-5.68) cancer. For the total study population, especially patients with cervical and endometrial cancer an advanced stage of cancer was found to be associated with the incidence of VTE. Conclusion: We observed that 40.8% experienced venous thromboembolic events. These events were associated with the treatment modality and the stage of cancer.