The impact of malignancy on the risk of venous thromboembolism in
pregnant women: a systematic review
Abstract
Background and aims: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a common
complication of malignancy associated with a three-fold increase risk of
death. Pregnancy is also a recognized risk factor for VTE, and is
associated with a 4-5 fold increase risk compared to non-pregnant women.
Considering that any review article has not been published in this field
yet and given that complications of VTE can be reduced by early
identifying between pregnant women the current systematic review aimed
to elucidate the impact of malignancy on the risk of VTE in pregnant
females. Methods: We carried out a systematic search in multiple
databases, including PubMed (Medline), Google Scholar, and Scopus up to
January 2023. Finally, 441 related articles were extracted from the
databases, after screening the title, abstract and full text, seven
articles were included in the study. Results: Seven studies (6 cohorts
and 1 cross-sectional) with an entire of 58,854,195 pregnant females
(22,396 cancer patients) were included. These studies were done in the
United States of America, Canada, Brazil, and Denmark. All of the
studies except one study demonstrated that cancer in pregnant patients
increased the risk of deep vein thrombosis (DVT). The VTE prevalence was
significantly higher in cancer groups compared with the non-cancer group
and the highest (adjusted odds ratio) aOR was correlated to myeloid
leukemia. Conclusions: Pregnant women with malignancy are more
susceptible to VTE and other coagulation disorders. Physicians and
health policymakers should be of high vigilance to pregnancy-associated
VTE, especially in women suffering from cancer.