title: Development in anticoagulant therapy.
abstract: Venous thromboembolism is an important clinical problem. Cancer patients have higher risk to develop venous thrombosis and vice versa. The treatment consists of heparin followed by vitamin K antagonists. Both agents have several limitations. Especially in cancer patients, vitamin K antagonists cause bleeding or recurrence of VTE because of a small therapeutic window. Monotherapy with low-molecular weight heparin seems to cause less of these complications in cancer patients compared to vitamin K antagonists. Besides, the drug is thought to have anti-cancer properties. Several novel anticoagulants are being developed and are undergoing clinical evaluation. New anticoagulants should also be evaluated on the effect on progression of cancer and cancer-related survival.
authors.affiliation: Department of Vascular Medicine, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. F.F.vanDoormaal@amc.uva.nl
authors.forename: F F
authors.initials: FF
authors.lastname: van Doormaal
authors.forename: H R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Büller
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Middeldorp
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000925:Anticoagulants / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001777:Blood Coagulation / Q000187:drug effects*; D015507:Drugs, Investigational / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications* / Q000188:drug therapy; D054556:Venous Thromboembolism / Q000097:blood / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology
chemical_list: D000925:Anticoagulants; D015507:Drugs, Investigational