Abstract
The aim of this study was to evaluate associations between cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and the occurrence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in patients with lung cancer that might help estimate an individual's risk for VTE. A total of 632 unselected patients with newly diagnosed lung cancer were investigated for VTE within the three months prior to recruitment, and their major CVD risk factors were assessed at the baseline examination. Eighty-six of the 632 (13.6%) developed a VTE event. Multivariate logistic regression analysis, including age, sex, smoking, body mass index, diabetes, dyslipidemia, hypertension and white blood cell count, found that hypertension (OR 1.8; 95% CI 1.0-3.3) and leukocytosis (OR 2.7; 95% CI 1.5-4.8) were significantly associated with VTE in different tumor histology models and that hypertension (OR 1.9; 95% CI 1.1-3.4) and leukocytosis (OR 2.7; 95% CI 1.5-4.7) were also significantly associated with VTE in different tumor stage models. Leukocytosis was linearly associated with hypertension and VTE (P for trend = 0.006), and the ORs for VTE increased with leukocytosis (all P for trend <0.05). In conclusion, hypertension increased the risk of VTE in patients with newly diagnosed lung cancer, which may be mediated by the presence of inflammation.