Analysis of incidence of thromboembolic complications in patients with chronic lymphoproliferative diseases

Abstract

Introduction: An increased risk for thromboembolism in cancer patients has been observed in patients with solid tumours, whereas little data exist on malignant lymphoma. Aim: Determination of the incidence of TE in patients with non Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) treated in our institution. Material and methods: We reviewed medical records of patients with NHL, HL and CLL diagnosed according to the WHO classification and treated at our institution between January 2006. and December 2014. Results: A total of 1054 patients, 48.4% had high-grade NHL, 20.0% low-grade NHL, 14.5% HL, 7.1% other forms of lymphoma and 10.0% CLL. In group of lymphoma patients, 72 (6.8 %) had at least one TE. TE included deep vein thrombosis (38.9%), jugular vein thrombosis (12.5%), pulmonary embolism (11.1%), CNS thrombosis (6.9%), superficial vein thrombosis (2.8%), acute myocardial infarction (1.4%) and other (26.4%). In 49 patients thrombosis occurred during treatment or up to three months after therapy completion, whereas in 23 patients thrombosis was diagnosed prior to therapy. Patients with aggressive NHL and CLL had significantly higher incidence of TE (8.63%, 8.57%) compared to other types of lymphoma patients (p = 0.009). There is no statistical significance of impact of different types of lymphoproliferative diseases on increased risk for TE. Conclusion: This study confirmed findings of some earlier studies of increased risk of thromboembolic events (TE) in patients with aggressive forms of chronic lymphoproliferative diseasses, but there is no significantly impact of gender or age on that risk.