Prophylactic anticoagulation to benefit younger patients under 65 years of age with metastatic lung cancer: An analysis of the 2013 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) data.
Meeting Abstract (Web of Science)
6581 Background: Cancer patients have increased risk of venous thromboses. Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is reported to be a leading cause of death in cancer patients. It has been hypothesized that prophylactic anticoagulation for VTE might improve prognosis and quality of life. Based on our analysis of the 2013 HCUP data, we propose that prophylactic anticoagulation should be considered for patients younger than 65 years with metastatic lung cancer. Methods: Patients were selected using ICD-9 diagnoses codes for metastatic lung cancer and VTE. Diagnoses were stratified by site including upper extremity, lower extremity, pulmonary, abdominal and nonpulmonary thoracic VTE. Patients were stratified by age, sex, race and ethnicity. Differences in incidence of VTE among groups were calculated by the Chi-Square method using the SAS software. Results: There were a total of 16,577 VTE events amongst 182,863 cases of metastatic lung cancer. Subgroup analyses showed that patients younger than 65 years of age had 356.82 more PE events per 100,000 individuals compared to those at or older than 65 years (p < 0.0001). The same age group also showed 374.83 more UE, 286.94 more nonpulmonary thoracic and 263.97 more abdominal (Abd) VTE events per 100,000 individuals (p-values, p < 0.0001). There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence of LE VTE’s between the subgroups. Conclusions: Prophylactic anticoagulation should be considered in patients < 65 years of age with metastatic lung cancer. Increased incidence of VTE in these patients may contribute towards greater morbidity and mortality associated with metastatic lung cancer in this subgroup. [Table: see text]
