Adding two new biomarkers to a risk-prediction model allows enhanced identification of cancer patients at high or low risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE), according to a recent study published in Blood.
Researchers Medical University of Vienna, Austria, incorporated soluble P-selectin (sP-selectin) and D-dimer into an existing risk-prediction model to more precisely define which cancer patients are at a very high risk of VTE. The previously developed risk model includes tumor entity, body-mass-index, hemoglobin level, thrombocyte-count, and leucocyte-count parameters.
To enhance the model, researchers examined 819 cancer patients enrolled in the Vienna Cancer and Thrombosis Study between October 2003 and December 2008. Cancer types included: brain, breast, lung, stomach, colorectal, pancreatic, kidney, prostate, and hematologic malignancies such as myeloma and lymphoma. sP-selectin is a cell adhesion molecule that promotes blood clot formation and D-dimer is a protein found in the blood that is used to detect abnormal blood clot formation and breakdown. Both have been previously identified as predictive biomarkers for cancer-associated.
The cumulative VTE probability in the original risk model after 6 months was 17.7% in patients with a risk score ≥3 (n = 93), 9.6% in thosewith score 2 (n = 221), 3.8% in those with score 1 (n = 229) and 1.5% in those with score 0 (n = 276). In the expanded risk model,the cumulative VTE probability after 6 months in patients with a risk score ≥5 (n = 3) was 35.0%, 10.3% in those with score 3 (n = 130), and 1%in patients with score 0 (n = 200); the hazard ratio of patientswith the highest compared with those with the lowest score was 25.9 (8.0-84.6).