Analysing risk factors for thrombosis in COVID-19 and cancer patients

Background : Cancer patients are at increased risk of thrombosis due to multiple factors. Millions of cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection have been detected worldwide and there is multiple evidence of its association with arterial and venous thrombosis.At present, we do not know if Covid-19 adds an increased thrombotic risk to cancer patients. Aims : The aim of our study is to analyze the incidence and risk factors of thrombosis in oncological patients with Covid-19. Methods : We retrospectively reviewed 86 patients with active cancer and Covid-19 admitted to the general ward oh the Hospital Infanta Leonor (Madrid) between March 5th, 2020 to May 3th, 2020. Study data were collected and managed using REDCap electronic data capture tool. Results : We diagnosed 10 thrombotic events in 8 oncological patients with a cumulative incidence of 9.3%. A statistically significant association were found regarding thrombosis and history of obesity ( P = 0.009). Atrend towards significance were detected regarding a previous history of chronic kidney diseasei were we detected 2 patients in the thrombosis cohort (25%) versus only 6 patients of the 78 (7.6%) without thrombosis ( P = 0.108). No statistically significant differences were found in tumor stage, history of hypertension, acute coronary sindrome, heart disease, history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, dyslipemia and smoking. Conclusions : In patients with covid-19 and cancer, a statistically significant difference was found for the history of obesity being a classic factor predictor of the development of thrombotic events in our patients. The prothrombotic effect of Covid-19 infection does not seem to be as evident in cancer patients, probably due to the high mortality in this population group before developing thrombosis. More studies are needed to assess the impact of covid 19 in this population.