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 distinct malignancy complication that raises the risk of demise in cancer patients by up to thrice. However, pregnant females have a 4–5 times greater chance of getting VTE than nonpregnant 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 (six cohorts and one cross-sectional) with 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 risk of VTE prevalence in pregnant females with a record of malignancy was significantly higher than in free cancer groups, and the highest aOR was correlated to myeloid leukemia.

Conclusions

Evidence in this systematic review showed that 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 who have cancer.