Using the Khorana risk score to predict venous thromboembolism and overall survival in a cohort of Hispanic patients with solid malignancies.

BACKGROUND

The Khorana risk score (KRS) for prognosis of venous thromboembolism (VTE) has been rarely explored in Hispanic populations.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the value of the KRS for prediction of VTE and overall survival (OS) among Hispanic individuals with cancer.

METHODS

We retrospectively evaluated all outpatients with newly diagnosed solid tumours receiving systemic chemotherapy in Hospital San Juan Dios, San José, Costa Rica, from January to December 2021. The 6-month cumulative VTE incidence according to the KRS categories was estimated using the Fine & Gray competing risk model. A Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to compare OS among KRS categories. The Cox regression analysis was performed to calculate the hazard ratio (HR) and its corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to identify the optimal cutoff value to predict VTE during follow-up.

RESULTS

A total of 708 patients were included in the analysis. After a median follow-up of 8.13 months, the cumulative incidence of VTE at 6 months was 1.56% (95% CI: 0.83%-6.82%), 4.83% (95% CI: 2.81%-7.66%) and 8.84% (95% CI: 4.30%-15.42%) for low-, intermediate- and high-risk Khorana score categories, respectively (Gray's value: 0.0178). The optimal cutoff for the KRS to predict VTE was 2 (area under the ROC curve: 0.65; 95% CI: 0.55-0.756). The KRS was independently associated with overall mortality (HR: 1.83; 95% CI: 1.46-2.29; < 0.001, for the comparison of 'high-risk' and 'low-risk' KRS).

CONCLUSIONS

The KRS is a valid tool to predict VTE and mortality in a cohort of Hispanic outpatients with newly diagnosed solid tumours.