No difference in major bleeding, overall mortality, but reduction in clinically relevant nonmajor bleeding
TUESDAY, Aug. 18, 2015 (HealthDay News) — For patients with active cancer and acute symptomatic venous thromboembolism (VTE), full-dose tinzaparin does not reduce recurrent VTE compared with warfarin, according to a study published in the Aug. 18 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Agnes Y.Y. Lee, M.D., from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and colleagues examined the efficacy and safety of tinzaparin versus warfarin for treatment of acute, symptomatic VTE in adult patients with active cancer. Nine hundred patients were randomized to receive tinzaparin (175 IU/kg) once daily for six months or conventional therapy with tinzaparin (175 IU/kg) for five to 10 days followed by warfarin for six months.
The researchers found that recurrent VTE occurred in 7.2 percent of the 449 patients treated with tinzaparin versus 10.5 percent of the 451 patients treated with warfarin (hazard ratio [HR], 0.65; 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.41 to 1.03; P = 0.07). No differences were seen in major bleeding (HR, 0.89; 95 percent CI, 0.40 to 1.99; P = 0.77) or overall mortality (HR, 1.08; 95 percent CI, 0.85 to 1.36; P = 0.54). Tinzaparin was associated with a significant reduction in clinically relevant nonmajor bleeding (HR, 0.58; 95 percent CI, 0.40 to 0.84; P = 0.004).
“Further studies are needed to assess whether the efficacy outcomes would be different in patients at higher risk of recurrent VTE,” the authors write.
Several authors disclosed financial ties to biopharmaceutical companies, including LEO Pharma, which manufactures tinzaparin and funded the study.
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