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Open Access
CC BY 4.0 · TH Open 2022; 06(03): e257-e266
DOI: 10.1055/s-0042-1755606
Original Article

Venous Thromboembolism and Risk of Cancer in Users of Low-Dose Aspirin: A Danish Population-Based Cohort Study

Autoren

  • Gencer Kurt

    1   Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Aarhus University Hospital and Aarhus University, Aarhus N, Denmark

  • Dávid Nagy

    1   Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Aarhus University Hospital and Aarhus University, Aarhus N, Denmark

  • Frederikke S. Troelsen

    1   Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Aarhus University Hospital and Aarhus University, Aarhus N, Denmark

  • Nils Skajaa

    1   Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Aarhus University Hospital and Aarhus University, Aarhus N, Denmark

  • Rune Erichsen

    1   Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Aarhus University Hospital and Aarhus University, Aarhus N, Denmark

  • Dóra K. Farkas

    1   Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Aarhus University Hospital and Aarhus University, Aarhus N, Denmark

  • Henrik T. Sørensen

    1   Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Aarhus University Hospital and Aarhus University, Aarhus N, Denmark

Funding Department of Clinical Epidemiology is involved in studies with funding from various companies in the form of research grants to and administered by Aarhus University, Aarhus N, Denmark. None of these studies are related to the present study.
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Abstract

Background Aspirin may reduce the risk of cancer, particularly gastrointestinal cancer, and venous thromboembolism (VTE). VTE can be the first symptom of occult cancer, but whether it is also a marker of occult cancer in aspirin users remains unknown. Therefore, we investigated the risk of cancer subsequent to VTE among users of low-dose aspirin.

Methods We conducted a population-based cohort study using data from Danish health registries for the years 2001 to 2018. We identified all patients with a first-time diagnosis of VTE who also redeemed a prescription for low-dose aspirin (75–150mg) within 90 days prior to the first-time VTE. We categorized aspirin users by the number of prescriptions filled as new users (<5 prescriptions), short-term users (5–19 prescriptions), and long-term users (>19 prescriptions). We computed the absolute cancer risks and standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) for cancer using national cancer incidence rates.

Results We followed-up 11,759 users of low-dose aspirin with VTE. Long-term users comprised 50% of aspirin users. The 1-year absolute risk of cancer was 6.0% for new users and 6.7% for short-term and long-term users, with corresponding SIRs of 3.3 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.8–4.0), 3.2 (95% CI: 2.9–3.7), and 2.8 (95% CI: 2.6–3.2), respectively. After the first year of follow-up, the SIR decreased to 1.2 (95% CI: 1.1–1.4) for new users, 1.1 (95% CI: 1.1–1.3) for short-term users, and 1.1 (95% CI: 1.0–1.2) for long-term users.

Conclusion VTE may be a harbinger of cancer, even in users of low-dose aspirin, regardless of duration of use.

Keywords

venous thromboembolism - low-dose aspirin - cancer - cohort

Supplementary Material



Publikationsverlauf

Eingereicht: 03. März 2022

Angenommen: 04. Juli 2022

Artikel online veröffentlicht:
12. September 2022

© 2022. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, permitting unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction so long as the original work is properly cited. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

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