Primary prophylaxis for venous thromboembolism in ambulatory cancer patients receiving chemotherapy.

CONCLUSIONS: In this second update, we confirmed that primary thromboprophylaxis with LMWH significantly reduced the incidence of symptomatic VTE in ambulatory cancer patients treated with chemotherapy. In addition, the uLMWH semuloparin, which is not commercially available, significantly reduced the incidence of symptomatic VTE. The risk of major bleeding associated with LMWH, while not reaching statistical significance, suggest caution and mandate additional studies to determine the risk-to-benefit ratio of LMWH in this setting. Despite the encouraging results of this review, routine prophylaxis in ambulatory cancer patients cannot be recommended before safety issues are adequately addressed. We need additional studies investigating targeted primary prophylaxis in people with specific types or stages of cancer associated with a higher risk of VTE. PMID: 27906452 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Tags: Cochrane Database Syst Rev Source Type: research