Prediction of Venous Thrombosis During chemotherapy-the PINPOINT Study

Cancer patients are at higher risk of getting a blood clot (known as venous thromboembolism (VTE)) especially during chemotherapy and some patients are more at risk than others. These clots can be prevented by using blood thinners (known as anticoagulants) but these are not suitable for everyone as they also carry a risk of bleeding. This study aims to identify which chemotherapy patients are most at risk of a blood clot and at what point in their treatment this is likely to happen. In this project biomarkers in the blood that are involved in blood clotting will be measured in cancer patients at four stages during chemotherapy to see how the biomarkers change during treatment. The blood samples for these tests are taken at the same time as the normal routine blood tests done before a chemotherapy cycle. Biomarker levels will be compared between those patients who subsequently get a VTE and those who do not get a VTE. This will help develop a biomarker based blood test to predict clots during chemotherapy. The biomarker based test will also be compared with other methods of predicting VTE in cancer patients which are currently in use. In the future, this blood test might be used to see if patients are at high risk of a clot during chemotherapy and provide a method to optimise the use of preventative anticoagulants in cancer patients during chemotherapy.