Anticoagulant Therapy for Cancer-Associated Venous Thromboembolism after Cancer Remission

Objectives: To examine the outcomes of anticoagulant therapy for patients with venous thromboembolism (VTE) with active cancer and the outcomes after cancer remission with and without anticoagulant therapy. Materials and Methods: Of the 338 patients with cancer-associated VTE who received anticoagulant therapy, we evaluated therapeutic outcomes over 1 year for 112 patients whose cancers were in remission (cancer remission group) and 226 patients who continued cancer treatment (continued cancer treatment group). Further, the cancer remission group was divided into 89 and 23 patients who completed (completion of anticoagulation group) and continued (continued anticoagulation group) anticoagulant therapy, respectively. Treatment outcomes after completing anticoagulant therapy were compared between these two groups. The follow-up period was 1 year, and the endpoints were all-cause death, VTE recurrence, and bleeding events. Results: The event-free survival rates were 99.1% and 42.9% in the cancer remission and continued cancer treatment groups, respectively. For treatment outcomes after the completion of anticoagulant therapy, the event-free survival rates were 98.9% and 87% in the completion of anticoagulation and continued anticoagulation groups, respectively (log rank, P=0.005). Conclusion: When cancer is in remission, recurrence is low even if anticoagulant therapy is terminated after a certain period.