Risk factors of death from vascular events among cancer survivors: A SEER database analysis

Introduction Cancer is the most important leading cause of death in the world and vascular events are the second-leading cause of death in cancer patients after cancer itself. Understanding related risk factors associated with vascular events may help clinicians develop appropriate treatment strategies. However, few large-scale population-based studies have investigated the risk factors for vascular events among cancer patients. Materials and methods The study involved a retrospective evaluation of medical records from the SEER database. Ten most common cancers in the past 20 years were extracted from the database. Cox proportional hazards model was used to analyze risk factors affecting vascular events that caused death among cancer patients. Results This study revealed that cancer patients had a serious risk of vascular events caused death, the 1-year, 3-year, 5-year and the overall rates of mortality from vascular events were 6.0%, 10.8%, 17.9% and 25.8%, respectively. The results showed that male, black race, elderly, AJCC stage II, stage III and stage IV, with no multiple primary cancers and no surgical treatment were associated with a significantly increased risk of vascular events caused death. Discussion We hope this research can alert clinicians and help them select high-risk cancer patients who may die from vascular events. And for those patients, we recommend that clinicians regularly monitor the patient's coagulation function and perform individualized thromboprophylaxis promptly to reduce the risk of death from vascular events.