Patterns of interventions for central venous catheter-associated deep vein thrombosis and outcomes in cancer patients.

Purpose: This letter evaluated the impact of different management strategies, specifically the presence or absence of therapeutic anticoagulation, on clinical outcomes for central venous catheter (CVC)-associated deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in cancer patients.

Methods: One-hundred ninety-eight adult cancer patients with a confirmed CVC-associated DVT diagnosis from February 2013 and February 2021 were included.

Results: Incidence of symptomatic recurrent venous thromboembolism (VTE) was similar between patients who received therapeutic anticoagulation and those who did not (14% vs 16%, p = 0.807). In addition, therapeutic anticoagulation did not significantly alter the incidence of grade 3 and above bleeding events despite most patients having hematologic malignancies (9% vs 8%, p = 0.826).

Conclusion and relevance: Therapeutic anticoagulation was not associated with a reduction in the incidence of recurrent VTE or increase the incidence of bleeding in adult cancer patients following a CVC-associated DVT diagnosis.