Keywords cancer - venous thromboembolism - elderly patients - bleeding-prediction score
Introduction
The risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) is four- to sevenfold higher in cancer patients
than in other patients.[1 ] Approximately 15 to 20% of cancer patients are expected to experience VTE at some
point during the course of their illness,[2 ] and VTE is the leading cause of death among these patients after the cancer itself.[3 ] The annual incidence of VTE sharply increases with age, with 4.5 to 6 cases per
1,000 person-years in individuals aged ≥65 years, and 10 cases per 1,000 person-years
in individuals aged ≥75 years.[4 ]
[5 ]
Notably, when receiving anticoagulant treatment, elderly patients with cancer-associated
VTE have higher risks of recurrent VTE and bleeding.[6 ]
[7 ] Several studies have reported that the rate of major bleeding in cancer-associated
VTE patients is 3 to 9% during the first 6 months of treatment,[8 ]
[9 ]
[10 ] and the highest risk of bleeding is within the first 7 days.[7 ]
[11 ]
[12 ]
[13 ] Moreover, there is fourfold greater risk of life-threatening and fatal bleeds in
patients aged ≥80 years.[7 ]
[14 ]
[15 ] Not only the treatment of cancer-associated VTE is more complicated but also recurrent
VTE and bleeding are potentially fatal. The case fatality rate of recurrent VTE is
higher than the case fatality rate of major bleeding in cancer patients receiving
anticoagulation (14.8%; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 6.6–30.1% vs. 8.9%; 95% CI:
3.5–21.1%).[16 ] Therefore, it is important to achieve a balance between the risks of recurrent VTE
and bleeding in these patients, which remains challenging for physicians.
Current treatment guidelines recommend low-molecular-weight heparins (LMWH) for the
treatment of cancer-associated VTE.[17 ]
[18 ] However, vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) and rivaroxaban are at least equally utilized
in clinical practice.[19 ] There is evidence that bleeding risk in hospitalized patients varies according to
cancer type and anticoagulant strategy (e.g., type, dose, and duration).[10 ]
[20 ]
[21 ]
[22 ]
[23 ] Therefore, personalized anticoagulant therapy has been proposed.
As a new prediction model, CT-BLEED score was developed for estimating bleeding risk
especially in cancer-associated thrombosis patients.[24 ] It was developed for cancer-associated thrombosis patients randomly treated by edoxaban
or dalteparin. The calculation of “CAT-BLEED” score includes the prediction of “if
the patient has gastrointestinal cancer and is prescribed edoxaban treatment.” Because
edoxaban is not available in China, it is difficult to validate the score in a contemporary
Chinese cohort of elderly hospitalized cancer patients with acute VTE. Meanwhile,
four existing bleeding-prediction scores have been developed to estimate the risk
of major bleeding in the general population of VTE patients during short- (first 3
months) or long-term (extended treatment) anticoagulant therapy. These are the RIETE,
VTE-BLEED, SWITCO65+ (the Swiss VTE cohort), and Hokusai-VTE scores.[25 ]
[26 ]
[27 ]
[28 ] All of these scores were derived mainly from patients treated with LMWH/VKAs/dabigatran.
These scores were developed without any consideration of advanced age; it remains
unknown whether these scores could predict major bleeding in elderly cancer patients
with acute VTE during the most vulnerable period of hospitalization. This article
aimed to evaluate whether these four scores could predict in-hospital major bleeding
in a real-world cohort of elderly cancer patients with acute VTE.
Materials and Methods
Study Population and Selection Criteria
This retrospective cohort study included cancer patients aged ≥65 years who were consecutively
admitted to the Aerospace Center Hospital, Beijing, China, between June 2015 and March
2021, with a definitive diagnosis of acute VTE (pulmonary embolism [PE], lower extremities
proximal or distal deep vein thrombosis [DVT], or upper extremities DVT).[17 ]
[18 ] Cancer patients aged 65 years or older were eligible for inclusion if they met one
of the following criteria: they were admitted due to acute VTE or they were admitted
due to other reasons and acute VTE occurred during hospitalization. Meanwhile, cancer
patients comprised patients with active cancer or cancer diagnosed within 2 years
before enrollment. Active cancer was defined as solid or hematologic cancer treated
with chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or surgery; or recurrent or metastatic disease; or
palliative care during the preceding 3 months.[27 ] All patients were identified based on the diagnostic codes (ICD-10) and medical
records through electronic patient records. Patients were excluded if they met one
of the following criteria: bleeding on admission, missing risk score variables, thrombolytic
treatment, and death within 48 hours of hospital arrival (unrelated to bleeding).
All patients were treated at the discretion of their attending physicians during hospitalization,
in accordance with the most recent clinical guidelines.[17 ]
[18 ]
Complete data were collected regarding the enrolled patients, including baseline demographics;
clinical, hemodynamic, and laboratory parameters; diagnostic procedures; VTE-related
treatment; concomitant antiplatelet therapy; bleeding events; and all-cause mortality
during hospitalization. The study protocol was approved by the Clinical Research Ethics
Committee of the Aerospace Center Hospital (No. 20190528-JT-15).
Bleeding Events
Major bleeding was assessed using the International Society on Thrombosis and Hemostasis
criteria.[29 ] Major bleeding included fatal bleeding; symptomatic bleeding in a critical area
or organ, including intracranial, intraspinal, intraocular, retroperitoneal, intra-articular
or pericardial, and intramuscular bleeds with compartment syndrome; and bleeding causing
a ≥20 g/L (1.24 mmol/L) decrease in the hemoglobin level, or requiring the transfusion
of ≥2 units of whole blood or red cells. According to the International Society on
Thrombosis and Hemostasis criteria,[30 ] clinically relevant non-major bleeding requires intervention by a healthcare professional,
leads to hospitalization or increased level of care, or prompts a face-to-face evaluation.
Clinically relevant bleeding (CRB) was defined as major bleeding or clinically relevant
non-major bleeding.[31 ] All bleeding events were assessed by a blinded, independent central committee of
three to five experts. For patients who experienced multiple bleeding events, only
the most severe event was included in the final analysis.
Bleeding Score Calculation
Based on the critical review of the literature, the RIETE, VTE-BLEED, SWITCO65 + ,
and Hokusai-VTE scores, developed specifically for the prediction of bleeding risk
among VTE patients, were calculated for all patients. To calculate the RIETE or SWITCO65+
scores, recent or previous major bleeding was defined as a major bleeding event that
occurred fewer than 15 days prior to VTE.[25 ] The definition of anemia was consistent with the RIETE, VTE-BLEED, and SWITCO65+
scores.[25 ]
[26 ]
[27 ] Creatinine clearance (Ccr) was calculated using the Cockcroft–Gault formula.[26 ] Patients with Ccr less than 30 mL/minutes were also included; for this parameter,
they were given 1.5 points in the VTE-BLEED score.
Statistical Analysis
Continuous variables are described as means ± standard deviations (SDs); they were
compared using Student's t -test. Categorical variables are reported as numbers and percentages (n , %); they were compared using the chi-squared test or Fisher's exact test, as appropriate.
The RIETE, VTE-BLEED, SWITCO65, and Hokusai-VTE scores were converted into corresponding
points; the patient scores were calculated by summing all of the points of their variables.
Within each category, the proportions of low-, intermediate-, and high-risk patients,
as well as the major bleeding and CRB rates during hospitalization, were described
along with 95% CIs; they were compared using the chi-squared test or Fisher's exact
test.
The calibration of each score was assessed using the Hosmer–Lemeshow (HL) goodness-of-fit
test; a p -value < 0.05 was indicative of a poor fit.[32 ] The discriminative power of each score to predict major bleeding and CRB during
hospitalization was determined using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.[33 ] Furthermore, the net reclassification improvement (NRI) and integrated discrimination
improvement (IDI) with PredictABEL were also used to quantify the discriminative increment
of the risk scores.[34 ]
[35 ] All analyses were performed using SPSS Statistics software, version 22.0 (IBM Corp.,
Armonk, New York, United States).
Results
Study Sample and Baseline Characteristics
A total of 433 consecutive elderly cancer patients with acute VTE were enrolled, of
whom 408 (94.2%) were included in the final analysis ([Fig. 1 ]). In-hospital major bleeding was significantly more common in patients with lower
hemoglobin levels and patients with digestive system cancers ([Table 1 ]).
Fig. 1 Study flow chart. VTE, venous thromboembolism.
Table 1
Baseline characteristics, admission data, diagnosis, and treatment
Characteristic
Major bleeding
(n = 34)
No major bleeding
(n = 374)
p -Value
Demographic data and medical history
Age (mean ± SD), y
76.7 ± 8.3
76.9 ± 7.6
0.89
>75 y, n (%)
17 (50.0)
208 (55.6)
0.53
Women, n (%)
14 (41.2)
193 (51.6)
0.24
Prior VTE, n (%)
8 (23.5)
67 (17.9)
0.42
Recent major bleeding, n (%)
0 (0.0)
7 (1.9)
0.91
Hypertension, n (%)
14 (41.2)
202 (54.0)
0.15
Diabetes mellitus, n (%)
7 (20.6)
95 (25.4)
0.54
Chronic renal insufficiency, n (%)
4 (11.8)
58 (15.5)
0.56
Cerebrovascular disease, n (%)
6 (17.6)
107 (28.6)
0.29
Coronary heart disease, n (%)
6 (17.6)
118 (31.6)
0.09
Prior coronary revascularization, n (%)
2 (5.9)
29 (7.8)
0.96
Atrial fibrillation, n (%)
3 (8.8)
55 (14.7)
0.49
Chronic heart failure, n (%)
6 (17.6)
71 (19.0)
0.85
Anemia, n (%)
11 (32.4)
94 (25.1)
0.36
Prior hemorrhagic disease, n (%)
2 (5.9)
18 (4.8)
1.00
Depression, n (%)
1 (2.9)
22 (5.9)
0.75
Liver cirrhosis, n (%)
1 (2.9)
4 (1.1)
0.89
Admission data
Systolic blood pressure (mean ± SD), mm Hg
124.4 ± 23.0
127.5 ± 20.2
0.39
Hemoglobin (mean ± SD), (g/L)
91.0 ± 22.7
105.7 ± 21.4
0.00
Platelet count (mean ± SD), 109 /L
226.1 ± 109.0
212.8 ± 93.3
0.43
Ccr[a ] (mean ± SD), mL/min
77.7 ± 63.2
74.3 ± 61.3
0.76
<60 mL/min, n (%)
20 (58.8)
181 (48.4)
0.24
Diagnosis
Type of VTE, n (%)
PE only
3 (8.8)
22 (5.9)
0.25
DVT only
31 (91.2)
332 (88.8)
Both PE and DVT
0 (0.0)
20 (5.3)
Cancer type, n (%)
Lung
5 (14.7)
107 (28.6)
0.03
Digestive system
24 (70.6)
140 (37.4)
Urogenital system
4 (11.8)
74 (19.8)
Breast
0 (0.0)
28 (7.5)
Brain
0 (0.0)
3 (0.8)
Hematological
0 (0.0)
4 (1.1)
Other
1 (2.9)
18 (4.8)
Digestive system cancer
24 (70.6)
140 (37.4)
0.00
Active cancer
29 (85.3)
287 (76.7)
0.25
Metastatic malignancy
19 (55.9)
194 (51.9)
0.65
Treatments
Initial parenteral anticoagulation, n (%)
24 (70.6)
306 (81.8)
0.11
Subsequent VKA or DOAC therapy, n (%)
2 (5.9)
53 (14.2)
0.28
Abbreviations: Ccr, creatinine clearance; DOAC, direct oral anticoagulant; DVT, deep
vein thrombosis; PE, pulmonary embolism; VKA, vitamin K antagonist; VTE, venous thromboembolism.
a Creatinine clearance was calculated using the Cockcroft–Gault formula.
Major Bleeding and CRB
During hospitalization (median: 13 days; interquartile range: 9–18 days), 34 patients
(8.3%) experienced major bleeding. According to the International Society on Thrombosis
and Hemostasis criteria for major bleeding, 8.8% of the patients had fatal bleeding,
while 91.2% patients had a ≥20 g/L decrease in hemoglobin levels or required ≥2 units
of red blood cell transfusion. Furthermore, 48 patients (11.8%) experienced CRB, including
14 cases of clinically relevant non-major bleeding. In addition, the overall rate
of in-hospital mortality was 17.2% (70/408). Among them, death from fatal bleedings
occurred in three (0.7%) patients, and PE occurred in three (0.7%) patients.
Because cancer and low physical activity were included as variables in the RIETE and
SWITCO65+ scores, respectively, there were no patients classified as low risk using
these scores ([Table 2 ]). Using the original risk categories, RIETE and Hokusai-VTE scores classified most
patients as low or intermediate risk (82.6 and 75.7%, respectively), whereas VTE-BLEED
and SWITCO65+ scores classified most patients as high risk (93.9 and 95.1%, respectively;
[Table 2 ]). Moreover, there was no statistical difference in the rate of major bleeding and
CRB in the low- or intermediate-risk and high-risk categories of the VTE-BLEED (0.0
vs. 8.9% [p = 0.24] and 4.0 vs. 12.3% [p = 0.36], respectively), SWITCO65+ (0.0 vs. 8.8% [p = 0.33] and 0.0 vs. 12.4% [p = 0.19], respectively), and Hokusai-VTE scores (8.7 vs. 7.1% [p = 0.60] and 11.7 vs. 12.1% [p = 0.90], respectively). Only the RIETE score was able to categorize patients with
increasing rate of major bleeding and CRB as low or intermediate risk and high risk
(7.1 vs. 14.1% [p = 0.05] and 10.1 vs. 19.7 [p = 0.02], respectively; [Table 2 ]).
Table 2
Rates of major bleeding and CRB during hospitalization according to risk categories
of bleeding-prediction scores
Bleeding scores
Low risk
Intermediate risk
High risk
p -Value
Number of major bleedings/number of patients (%, 95% CI)
RIETE score
–
24/337 (7.1%, 4.4–9.9%)
10/71 (14.1%, 5.8–22.4%)
0.05
VTE-BLEED score
0/25 (0.0%)
/
34/383 (8.9%, 6.0–11.7%)
0.24
SWITCO65+ score
–
0/20 (0.0%)
34/388 (8.8%, 5.9–11.6%)
0.33
Hokusai-VTE score
27/309 (8.7%, 6.1–12.9%)
/
7/99 (7.1%, 1.9–12.2%)
0.60
Number of CRB/number of patients (%, 95% CI)
RIETE score
–
34/337 (10.1%, 6.9–13.3%)
14/71 (19.7%, 10.2–29.2%)
0.02
VTE-BLEED score
1/25 (4.0%, 0.0–12.3%)
/
47/383 (12.3%, 9.0–15.6%)
0.36
SWITCO65+ score
–
0/20 (0.0%)
48/388 (12.4%, 9.1–15.7%)
0.19
Hokusai-VTE score
36/309 (11.7%, 8.1–15.2%)
/
12/99 (12.1%, 5.6–18.7%)
0.90
Abbreviations: CI, confidence interval; CRB, clinically relevant bleeding.
Bleeding Prediction Performance
The calibration of each score was adequate to predict in-hospital major bleeding (HL
p > 0.05) for all patients. The areas under the ROC curve ranged from low for Hokusai-VTE
(0.45; 95% CI: 0.35–0.55), SWITCO65+ (0.54; 95% CI: 0.43–0.64), and VTE-BLEED (0.58;
95% CI: 0.49–0.68) to moderate for RIETE (0.61; 95% CI: 0.51–0.71); there were no
differences between RIETE and the other scores (p > 0.05; [Fig. 2 ]). Furthermore, compared with Hokusai-VTE, the RIETE score reclassified major bleeding
risk with a significant IDI of +0.17 (Z = 11.13, p < 0.001) and a nonsignificant NRI of +0.17 (Z = 1.55, p = 0.06). Compared with SWITCO65+ and VTE-BLEED, the RIETE score reclassified major
bleeding risk with nonsignificant IDIs of +0.08 (Z = 0.63, p = 0.26) and +0.06 (Z = 0.47, p = 0.32), and nonsignificant NRIs of +0.08 (Z = 0.52, p = 0.30) and +0.06 (Z = 0.42, p = 0.34), respectively.
Fig. 2 Receiver-operating characteristic curve for predicting major bleeding during hospitalization
in elderly cancer patients with acute venous thromboembolism (VTE) using the RIETE
(0.61; 95% CI: 0.51–0.71), VTE-BLEED (0.58; 95% CI: 0.49–0.68), SWITCO65+ (0.54; 95%
CI: 0.43–0.64), and Hokusai-VTE scores (0.45; 95% CI: 0.35–0.55). There were no significant
differences among scores (p = 0.45, p = 0.29, and p = 0.74 for comparisons between RIETE and Hokusai-VTE, RIETE and SWITCO65 + , and
RIETE and VTE-BLEED, respectively).
In terms of CRB prediction, the calibration of each score was adequate for the entire
cohort (HL p > 0.05). The predictive values of the four scores for CRB, as expressed by areas
under the ROC curve, were poor: 0.48 (95% CI: 0.39–0.57) for Hokusai-VTE, 0.56 (95%
CI: 0.48–0.64) for SWITCO65 + , 0.60 (95% CI: 0.52–0.68) for VTE-BLEED, and 0.59 (95%
CI: 0.50–0.67) for RIETE. There were no differences between RIETE and the other three
scores (p > 0.05; [Fig. 3 ]). Moreover, compared with Hokusai-VTE, the RIETE score reclassified CRB risk with
a significant IDI of +0.13 (Z = 16.8, p < 0.001) and a nonsignificant NRI of +0.13 (Z = 1.28, p = 0.10). Compared with SWITCO65+ and VTE-BLEED, the RIETE score reclassified CRB
risk with nonsignificant IDIs of +0.08 (Z = 0.73, p = 0.23) and +0.09 (Z = 0.82, p = 0.21), and nonsignificant NRIs of +0.08 (Z = 0.60, p = 0.27) and +0.09 (Z = 0.68, p = 0.25), respectively.
Fig. 3 Receiver-operating characteristic curve for predicting clinically relevant bleeding
during hospitalization in elderly cancer patients with acute venous thromboembolism
(VTE) using the RIETE (0.59; 95% CI: 0.50–0.67), VTE-BLEED (0.60; 95% CI: 0.52–0.68),
SWITCO65+ (0.56; 95% CI: 0.48–0.64), and Hokusai-VTE scores (0.48; 95% CI: 0.39–0.57).
There were no significant differences among scores (p = 0.33, p = 0.65, and p = 0.79 for comparisons between RIETE and Hokusai-VTE, RIETE and SWITCO65 + , and
RIETE and VTE-BLEED, respectively).
Discussion
The main finding of the present study was that, for predicting in-hospital major bleeding,
the discriminative power of the four scores was poor to moderate, as indicated by
areas under the ROC curve (0.45, 0.54, 0.58, and 0.61 for Hokusai-VTE, SWITCO65 + ,
VTE-BLEED, and RIETE, respectively). The superiority of RIETE was indicated only by
the IDI compared with the Hokusai-VTE score (p < 0.001).
The RIETE score was developed for predicting major bleeding within the first 3 months
of anticoagulant therapy, based on the VTE patients in a large RIETE registry. It
could identify elderly cancer-associated VTE patients with a high risk of major bleeding
during hospitalization. It performed moderately well in the present study (area under
the curve > 0.6). Our results were consistent with the findings in a recent prospective,
multicenter study that evaluated the RIETE score in elderly VTE patients (aged ≥65
years), in which the area under the curve was 0.60.[36 ]
The VTE-BLEED and Hokusai-VTE scores, derived from VTE patients randomized to receive
either novel oral anticoagulants or warfarin, were designed to predict long-term major
bleeding during the “stable” term of anticoagulation therapy (defined as the treatment
period after the first 30 days, or a period of 3–12 months).[26 ]
[28 ] The design of this article differed from both of the derivation studies because
it focused on a real-world cohort of elderly cancer-associated VTE patients, most
of who were probably much sicker than the patients enrolled in the derivation studies.
Furthermore, the present study focused on in-hospital bleeding events, rather than
long-term outcomes. The risk factors for bleeding are likely to shift after the early
weeks of treatment.[11 ] Therefore, our results considerably differ from the more optimistic findings of
the original score derivation studies.
The SWITCO65+ score, derived from the Swiss VTE cohort (SWITCO65 + ) of elderly patients
(≥65 years) with acute VTE, was developed for predicting major bleeding during extended
anticoagulation therapy with VKAs (3–36 months).[27 ] To our knowledge, the present study is the first externally validated study to evaluate
these scores. The area under the curve was 0.54, indicating a poor predictive ability
and a much lower accuracy than reported for the derivation cohort (C-statistic: 0.71).
However, this unsurprising difference is presumably because our study focused on elderly
cancer-associated acute VTE patients; notably, 77.5% of our patients (316/408) were
classified as active cancer patients. All patients in our cohort represented a particularly
vulnerable group; they received 2 points for “low physical activity” in accordance
with the criteria of the derivation study.[6 ]
[27 ] In addition, the risk factors for bleeding change with time; they may have differed
between the hospitalization and extended anticoagulation periods.[11 ] Thus, the different follow-up times may have influenced the predictive values of
the scores.
There were some limitations in this study. First, the sample size was small (n = 408). However, elderly cancer-associated VTE patients represent a particularly
vulnerable group with high rates (8.3%) of major bleeding during hospitalization,
which makes this study clinically relevant. Second, the exclusion of patients treated
with thrombolytic therapy may have introduced a bias. Third, patients with Ccr less
than 30 mL/min were included and received 1.5 points for the VTE-BLEED score; thus,
our analysis may have overestimated the bleeding risk with respect to the VTE-BLEED
score. Fourth, we calculated only the overall rates of in-hospital major bleeding
and CRB, and did not calculate the cumulative rates of major bleeding and CRB according
to the method of Kaplan–Meier. However, the rates of in-hospital major bleeding and
mortality were comparable to the related studies.[16 ]
[37 ] In-hospital mortality might be a competing risk for major bleeding or CRB, and it
would be nice to have the additional analysis for making the conclusion more convincing.
Finally, this was a single-center observational study, and the management protocols
were uniform for all patients. Therefore, our findings should be viewed with caution,
particularly in other centers with different medical facilities and management protocols.
In conclusion, our findings suggested that the RIETE score had a moderate predictive
value for in-hospital major bleeding in a real-world cohort of elderly cancer patients
with acute VTE. Because bleeding-prevention strategies are clinically important in
these vulnerable individuals, the RIETE score may be used to predict the risk of major
bleeding during hospitalization.
What is known about this topic?
Major bleeding risk, conferred a high case fatality as that of recurrent VTE itself,
is highly relevant for anticoagulant treatment decisions in elderly cancer patients
with VTE.
Several risk scores for bleeding in patients with VTE exist, but have never been validated
in elderly cancer patients with VTE and are not recommended for practice.
What does this paper add?
RIETE score had moderate predictive value for hospitalized major bleeding in elderly
Chinese cancer patients with acute VTE.
RIETE score also could categorize the patients with increasing rate of major bleeding
and CRB according to the low-/intermediate- and high-risk categories.