TUESDAY, Nov. 1, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- Genetic testing could help identify breast cancer patients at high risk for venous thromboembolism (VTE), according to a study published online Nov. 1 in Clinical Cancer Research.
The study included 4,261 women in Sweden diagnosed with breast cancer between 2001 and 2008, and followed until 2012. The one-year rate of VTE was 9.5 percent among those who received chemotherapy and had a high genetic risk, compared with 1.3 percent among those who did not receive chemotherapy and had low genetic risk.
The researchers found that older chemotherapy patients with high genetic susceptibility had the highest risk of VTE. In patients 60 and older who had chemotherapy and a high genetic risk, the one-year cumulative incidence was 25 percent.
"Breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy are not routinely being examined for VTE prevention in today's clinical practice," study author Judith Brand, Ph.D., of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, said in a journal news release. "Our study demonstrates that information on genetic susceptibility can be used to identify patients at high risk of developing VTE."
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