Enoxaparin Prevents VTE in Advanced Pancreatic Cancer

An open, prospective, randomized, multicenter study of chemotherapy with and without enoxaparin (a low—molecular weight heparin) found that the medication effectively prevented symptomatic venous thromboembolism (VTE) in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. Results of the trial, which was conducted in Germany, were presented at the XXII Congress of the International Society on Thrombosis and Hemostasis by HB Reiss, MD, of the University of Medicine in Berlin.

The primary endpoint of the trial was to reduce symptomatic VTEs from the expected rate of 10% down to 3% in the first 12 weeks of treatment. Toxicity, time to progression, and overall survival were among the study’s secondary goals.

A total of 312 patients participated in the study. Researchers found that after a median follow-up of 30 weeks, there were 22 VTEs among the 152 patients in the placebo group, for a rate of 9.9%, compared with 8 VTEs among the 160 patients in the enoxaparin group, for a rate of 1.3%.

Overall, researchers concluded that enoxaparin is effective and safe in the primary prevention of symptomatic VTEs, applied in parallel with cytotoxic chemotherapy, in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. Final results on toxicity and overall survival are pending.