Prevalence of Cancer in Patients with Venous Thromboembolism: A Retrospective Nationwide Case-Control Study in Sweden

Cancer is a risk factor for venous thromboembolism (VTE). We aimed to define sex-specific risk of preceding cancer in patients with a first-time VTE by conducting a nationwide Swedish registry-based study including 298 172 patients with VTE and 1 185 079 matched controls. This included 44 685 patients with a diagnosis of cancer at/or within 1 year before a VTE diagnosis. Female patients with VTE had a higher multivariable adjusted odds ratios of preceding cancer than male patients with VTE (5.5 [99% confidence interval 5.4-5.7] vs 3.9 [3.8-4.0]). The highest risk of cancer in patients with VTE were found for pancreatic cancer (women: 19.6 [15.8-24.4]; men: 17.2 [13.7-21.6]) and brain cancer (women: 17.4 [12.9-23.4]; men: 17.5 [13.8-22.2]). Weak associations were seen between VTE and bladder/urothelial cancer (women: 1.31 [1.12-1.53]; men: 1.34 [1.23-1.47]), prostate cancer (men: 2.17 [2.07-2.27]), malignant melanoma (women: 2.51 [2.07-3.05]; men: 2.67 [2.23-3.18]), and kidney cancer (women: 3.20 [2.49-4.11]; men: 3.33 [2.79-4.07]). In conclusion, associations with VTE were weak for bladder/urothelial cancer and kidney cancer, and strong for pancreatic, brain, and biliary cancers.