TM-CaT v1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Identifying Thrombotic Markers of Cancer-Associated Thrombosis (TM-CAT)
IRAS ID
301825
Contact name
Kathryn M Musgrave
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Cancer increases the risk of developing a blood clot such as in the lungs or leg. These clots can be life-threatening. We can prevent blood clots with a daily low doses of anticoagulant drugs (thromboprophylaxis) but this treatment can also cause bleeding. It is important that we identify which patients are at highest risk of blood clots and there most likely to benefit from thromboprophylaxis.
Currently, we are only able to identify a quarter of the people with cancer who are most at risk of developing a blood clot. To do this a clinical risk score is used, this involves measuring markers in the patient’s blood and calculating their individual risk of developing a blood clot. This score is calculated after the cancer is diagnosed but before cancer treatment begins.
Most blood clots that are related to cancer occur in the first few months after the cancer diagnosis. This is due not just to the cancer itself but by many other factors including chemotherapy treatment, surgery and hospital stays due to infections. All the current risk scores for cancer blood clots are unable to consider these external factors as they are performed only once.
This study aims to identify those people most at risk of blood clots by measuring markers that have been previously associated with the risk of developing cancer blood clots throughout cancer treatment. Blood samples will be taken at five points (before chemotherapy, 1 and 3 months). Medical records will be reviewed following recruitment to identify which participants later develop blood clots.
By measuring the change in blood markers throughout cancer treatment, we hope that this will allow us to identify more people at risk of blood clots. In the future this could lead to a study targeting the population most likely to benefit from thromboprophylaxis.
REC name
London - Hampstead Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/PR/0729
Date of REC Opinion
17 Aug 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion