Venous thromboembolism in cancer and cancer immunotherapy.

Overview

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a clinical disease that includes deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. Amongst its underlying risk factors, cancer is of great importance. Stasis, endothelial injury, and hypercoagulability result in clot formation and VTE. Cancer can affect coagulability by favoring these three factors, resulting in VTE incidence. Immunotherapy is a novel therapeutic approach, targeting cancer by immune system enhancement. VTE is one of the most important adverse effects of immunotherapy, which complicates the administration of immunotherapy in cancer patients. The current review provides a brief overview of VTE epidemiology, pathophysiology, risk factors, biomarkers, the relationship of cancer and cancer immunotherapy to VTE incidence, and managing cancer-associated VTE.