SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- Patients undergoing chemotherapy had a 47.2 percent reduction in the risk of developing a blood clot if they used a blood thinner, researchers in Italy said.
Dr. Giancarlo Agnelli of the University of Perugia determined that the preventive use of the anti-thrombotic medication nadroparin can reduce the incidence of thromboembolic events -- blood clots -- in patients with cancer. Patients with cancer who receive chemotherapy are at high risk for developing deadly blood clots, Agnelli said.
The study involved 1,166 patients with advanced cancers -- including lung, colon, breast, ovarian, stomach, rectal, pancreatic, head and neck cancers -- who were randomized to one of two treatments: once-daily injections of nadroparin of 3,000 International Units or placebo.
Sixteen of the 769 patients treated with nadroparin, 2.1 percent, had a thromboembolic event, compared with 15 of the 381 patients, 3.9 percent, in the placebo group -- a 47.2 percent reduction.
Of those in the nadroparin group, 0.7 percent experienced a major bleeding episode, but the incidence of minor bleeding in the treatment group was similar to that of the placebo group, the researchers reported.
The findings were presented at the 50th annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology in San Francisco.
