The Contribution of Inherited Thrombophilia to Venous Thromboembolism in Cancer Patients

Although the relationship between venous thromboembolism (VTE) and cancer has been a subject of study, knowledge of the contribution of thrombophilia to thrombosis in patients with cancer is still very limited. The aim of this article is to collect present knowledge on the contribution of inherited thrombophilia to VTE in cancer patients. We performed a search in Google Scholar and PubMed and selected 21 from 76 returned articles. Then we made a narrative review of the selected articles. We describe 11 studies on the contribution of inherited thrombophilia to VTE in cancer patients in general and 10 on that contribution in specific types of cancer: 1 in colorectal cancer, 4 in breast cancer, 1 in gynecologic cancer and 4 in hematopoietic malignancies. All studies investigate the relation of factor V Leiden (FVL) to VTE, 13 that of the prothrombin G20210A mutation (PTG20210A) and 7 studies also investigate other inherited thrombophilias, such methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene mutations, although only 2 investigate the contribution of deficiencies of the natural anticoagulants. Studies are very heterogeneous, in design and sample size and conclusions differ considerably. There is no consensus on the contribution of inherited thrombophilia to VTE in cancer patients except for acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children. Probably, that contribution is not the same for all types of cancer and more studies are needed to bring more knowledge on this subject.