Abstract
Objective Cancers increase the risk of both arterial thrombosis and bleeding. The present study investigated whether or not comorbid new-onset cancers increase arterial thrombosis and bleeding events in patients after ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Methods Among 918 consecutive STEMI patients, excluding 300 who used mechanical hemodynamic supportive devices, the 67 with cancer and 851 without cancer were compared with respect to the frequency of thrombotic events, consisting of myocardial infarction (MI) and ischemic stroke, and bleeding events during the trackable observation period in this observational study. The predictive accuracy for bleeding events evaluated by the Academic Research Consortium (ARC) high bleeding risk (HBR) criteria and the patients receiving stent implantation and subsequent dual antiplatelet therapy (PRECISE-DAPT) score was assessed by C-statistics. Bleeding events were defined as type 3 or 5 according to the Bleeding Academic Research Consortium criteria. Results During the 1,233.3±1,284.4-day observation period, thrombotic events were observed in 13.4% of patients with cancer and 7.1% of patients without cancer (p=0.06; incidence rates, 2.4 vs. 2.4/100 person-years). MI and ischemic stroke were observed in 6.0% of patients with cancer and 3.5% of patients without cancer (p=0.23; incidence rates, 1.0 vs. 1.2/100 person-years) and 7.5% of patients with cancer and 3.6% of patients without cancer (p=0.18; incidence rates, 1.0 vs. 1.2/100 person-years), respectively. Bleeding events were observed in 26.9% of patients with cancer and 7.6% of patients without cancer (p<0.01; incidence rates, 4.4 vs. 2.4/100 person-years). The C-statistics for predicting bleeding events in patients with and without cancer were 0.65 vs. 0.71 using the ARC-HBR criteria and 0.67 vs. 0.71 using the PRECISE-DAPT scores, respectively. Conclusion Cancers increase unpredictable bleeding but not arterial thrombotic events in patients after STEMI.