Abstract
Background: Gastric cancer is one of the most pro-thrombotic tumor types, and after accounting for prevalence, it may be responsible for a significant burden of cancer-associated venous thromboembolism (VTE). Patients with gastric cancer are also at high risk for gastrointestinal bleeds (GIB), making primary thromboprophylaxis and anticoagulation an ongoing treatment challenge. Due to these competing risks, patients with gastric cancer may not be eligible for clinical trials of thromboprophylaxis and treatment of cancer-associated VTE. Additional information regarding the severity and outcomes of both gastrointestinal hemorrhage and VTE in patients with gastric cancer would be useful to guide clinical decision-making.
Aim: To determine the annual rates, inpatient mortality, length of stay and cost of VTE- and GIB-related admissions in patients with gastric cancer.
Methods: We queried the 2009-2014 Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) database, a nationally weighted hospital admissions database developed for the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, to identify adults (age ≥ 18 years) hospitalized with gastric cancer. Hospitalizations in which VTE or GIB were among the top-five discharge diagnoses, were considered an admission complicated by one of these events. In-hospital outcomes of patients with VTE were compared to those with GIB. We used linear regression models to analyze trends in outcomes over time and binary logistic regression with forward modeling to identify predictors of inpatient mortality. All statistical analyses were conducted with SPSS, version 24 (IBM, Armonk, NY).
Results: Among a total of 253,680 admissions with gastric cancer, 17,831 (6.7%) experienced a GIB whereas 10,992(4.2%) had VTE. Of those patients who experienced VTE, the majority (49.7%) developed pulmonary embolism, followed by lower extremity deep vein thrombosis (41.8%) and upper extremity deep vein thrombosis (8.54%). The patients included in this study were mainly white (53.7%) men (63.6%) with a median age of 67 (IQR:20) years; and a mean of 6 (SD: 2.83) chronic medical conditions. The annual GI bleed rate remained stable during the study period (16% in 2009 to 17.2% in 2014: p = 0.67) with a significant downtrend in inpatient mortality (18.8% in 2009 to 13.7% in 2014: p <0.01). In contrast, the annual rates of VTE-related admissions showed a small but significant uptrend (15% in 2009 to 18.1% in 2014: p <0.01) and an uptrend in the inpatient mortality during the study period (15.7% in 2009 to 19.2% in 2014: p <0.01). The overall inpatient mortality was higher among patients with VTE than with GI bleeds (10.2% vs 6.5%, p < 0.01; OR univariate: 1.51, CI: 1.42 - 1.61, p < 0.01). The negative effect of VTE on inpatient mortality persisted after adjusting for possible confounders such as metastatic disease, several comorbidities and demographics (OR: 1.39, CI: 1.30 - 1.49, p < 0.01). The VTE-associated admissions had a slightly longer length of stay (median, 6 vs 4 days, p < 0.01) with a significantly higher cost compared to GI bleed ($45,599 vs $31,219, respectively, p < 0.01).
Conclusion: In this NIS cohort of hospitalized patients with gastric cancer, GIB was more frequently observed than VTE, but those with VTE had higher inpatient mortality, longer length of stay, and higher hospital costs. Clinicians should be aware of patient-specific risk factors for both VTE and GI bleed and take these factors into account when discussing VTE prophylaxis and treatment with patients. Future studies should look to identify those patients with gastric cancer who would benefit most from primary VTE prophylaxis as well as identify ideal agents for the treatment of gastric cancer-associated VTE.
No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
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