The incidence and predictors of symptomatic venous thromboembolism associated with peripherally inserted central catheters in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma

• Published in: OncoTargets and therapy Vol. 11; pp. 3119 - 3127
• Main Authors: Liang, Yu-Jing, He, Yan, Li, Jian-Mei, Chen, Lin-Min, Chen, Li-Ping, Wang, Cong, Ji, Lu, Li, Zhen-Xiu, Tang, Lin-Quan, Chen, Qiu-Yan, Fan, Yu-Ying, Hu, Wen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New Zealand Dove Medical Press Limited 01.01.2018; Taylor & Francis Ltd; Dove Medical Press
• Subjects: Activities of daily living; Anticoagulants; Body mass index; Cancer; Cancer metastasis; Cancer therapies; Carcinoma; Care and treatment; Catheterization; Catheters; Chemotherapy; Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; Infections; Intubation; Medical prognosis; Medical research; Metastasis; nasopharyngeal carcinoma; Nursing; Nutrition; Oncology; Original Research; Pain; Parenteral nutrition; Patients; peripherally inserted central catheters; Radiation therapy; Risk factors; symptomatic venous thromboembolism; Throat cancer; Thromboembolism; Thrombosis; Ultrasonic imaging; Veins & arteries; China; symptomatic venous thromboembolism; nasopharyngeal carcinoma; peripherally inserted central catheters
• ISSN: 1178-6930; 1178-6930
• DOI: 10.2147/OTT.S164723

Despite wide usage, peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC)-related venous thromboembolism (VTE) is common in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients. This was a retrospective cohort study of NPC patients with PICC insertions from February 2, 2007 to December 25, 2014 in Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Centre. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the correlations between risk factors and symptomatic PICC-VTE. Of the 1,363 NPC patients, 76 developed symptomatic VTE. In univariable analysis, body mass index (BMI), Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) score, metastasis stage (M stage), and VTE history were associated with symptomatic PICC-VTE. Following multivariable adjustments, BMI (OR 0.900, =0.007), ECOG score (OR 4.162, =0.011), M stage (OR 2.717, =0.019), and VTE history (OR 109.772, <0.001) were still statistically significant. PICC-VTE is a common complication in NPC patients, with an incidence of 5.6% in our analysis. Those with VTE history and lower BMI and worse ECOG performance score metastatic NPC patients are more susceptible to symptomatic PICC-related thrombosis and thus may require prophylactic anticoagulation.