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Current and emerging strategies in the management of venous thromboembolism: benefit-risk assessment of dabigatran.

ABSTRACT: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a disease state that carries significant morbidity and mortality, and is a known cause of preventable death in hospitalized and orthopedic surgical patients. There are many identifiable risk factors for VTE, yet up to half of VTE incident cases have no identifiable risk factor and carry a high likelihood of recurrence, which may warrant extended therapy. For many years, parenteral unfractionated heparin, low-molecular weight heparin, fondaparinux, and oral vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) have been the standard of care in VTE management. However, limitations in current drug therapy options have led to suboptimal treatment, so there has been a need for rapid-onset, fixed-dosing novel oral anticoagulants in both VTE treatment and prophylaxis. Oral VKAs have historically been challenging to use in clinical practice, with their narrow therapeutic range, unpredictable dose responsiveness, and many drug-drug and drug-food interactions. As such, there has also been a need for novel anticoagulant therapies with fewer limitations, which has recently been met. Dabigatran etexilate is a fixed-dose oral direct thrombin inhibitor available for use in acute and extended treatment of VTE, as well as prophylaxis in high-risk orthopedic surgical patients. In this review, the risks and overall benefits of dabigatran in VTE management are addressed, with special emphasis on clinical trial data and their application to general clinical practice and special patient populations. Current and emerging therapies in the management of VTE and monitoring of dabigatran anticoagulant-effect reversal are also discussed.

SUBMITTER: Fanola CL

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4455861 | biostudies-other | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Current and emerging strategies in the management of venous thromboembolism: benefit-risk assessment of dabigatran.

Fanola Christina L CL

Vascular health and risk management 20150527

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a disease state that carries significant morbidity and mortality, and is a known cause of preventable death in hospitalized and orthopedic surgical patients. There are many identifiable risk factors for VTE, yet up to half of VTE incident cases have no identifiable risk factor and carry a high likelihood of recurrence, which may warrant extended therapy. For many years, parenteral unfractionated heparin, low-molecular weight heparin, fondaparinux, and oral vitamin ...[more]

PMID: 26064057

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Project description:Venous thromboembolism includes deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism and is a serious medical condition that requires anticoagulation as part of treatment. Currently, standard therapy consists of parenteral anticoagulation followed by a vitamin K antagonist (VKA). The pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profiles of the direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) differ from VKAs, which overcome some of the limitations of VKAs and have practical implications on their use in clinical situations. Dabigatran is a prodrug that undergoes primarily renal elimination and does not affect cytochrome P450 enzymes. Assays to quantify the degree of anticoagulation and the therapeutic level of DOAC are either unavailable for routine clinical use or require specific calibration. Routine monitoring of DOACs is not recommended at this time. Dabigatran, rivaroxaban, and apixaban are DOACs that have been studied for treatment of venous thromboembolism. Clinical trials comparing DOACs with standard therapy have shown them to be non-inferior for acute and extended therapy. Each DOAC has a unique benefit and harm profile that should be considered prior to use. The distinguishing characteristics of dabigatran include a requirement of parenteral anticoagulation prior to acute treatment, clinical trial results comparing it with a VKA for extended treatment, association with upper gastrointestinal adverse events, and increased risk of gastrointestinal bleed. Rivaroxaban is the only DOAC that has once-daily dosing while apixaban is the only DOAC that has lower risk of overall, major, and gastrointestinal bleeding compared with VKA. A common drawback of DOACs is the lack of an available reversal agent. Clinical trials of reversal agents are ongoing and one application for approval has been submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration. Selection of a DOAC for acute and extended therapy requires a shared decision-making approach that includes a comprehensive assessment of the benefits and harms of each individual DOAC.

Project description:AimTo characterise venous thromboembolism (VTE) in gastrointestinal cancer and assess the clinical utility of risk stratification scoring.MethodsWe performed a retrospective analysis using electronic patient records of 910 gastro-oesophageal (GO) cancer and 1299 colorectal cancer (CRC) patients referred to a tertiary cancer centre to identify the incidence of VTE, its relationship to chemotherapy and impact on survival. VTE risk scores were calculated using the Khorana index. Patients were classified as low risk (0 points), intermediate risk (1 to 2 points) or high risk (3 points). Data was analysed to determine the sensitivity of the Khorana score to predict VTE.ResultsThe incidence of VTE was 8.9% for CRC patients and 9.7% for GO cancer patients. Pulmonary emboli (PE) were more common in advanced than in localised CRC (50% vs 21% of events respectively) and lower limb deep vein thrombosis (DVT) were more common in localised than in advanced CRC (62% vs 39% of events respectively). The median time to VTE from cancer diagnosis was 8.3 mo for CRC patients compared to 6.7 mo in GO cancer. In localised CRC median time to VTE was 7.1 mo compared with 10.1 mo in advanced CRC. In contrast in GO cancer, the median time to VTE was 12.5 mo in localised disease and 6.8 mo in advanced disease. No survival difference was seen between patients with and without VTE in this cohort. The majority of patients with CRC in whom VTE was diagnosed had low or intermediate Khorana risk score (94% for localised and 97% in advanced CRC). In GO cancer, all patients scored either intermediate or high risk due to the primary site demonstrating a limitation of the risk assessment score in discriminating high and low risk patients with GO cancers. Additional risk factors were identified in this cohort including surgery, chemotherapy or hospital admission. Overall, 81% of patients with CRC and 77% of patients with GO cancer had one or more of these factors within 4 wk prior to diagnosis VTE. These should be factored into clinical risk assessment scores.ConclusionThe Khorana score has low sensitivity for thrombotic events in CRC and cannot discriminate low risk patients in high risk cancer sites such as GO cancer.

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Current and emerging strategies in the management of venous thromboembolism: benefit-risk assessment of dabigatran.

Publications

Current and emerging strategies in the management of venous thromboembolism: benefit-risk assessment of dabigatran.

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