Neutrophil Extracellular Traps Predict Venous Thromboembolism

Patients with cancer have a fourfold to sevenfold increased risk for venous thromboembolism (VTE), but predicting thrombosis in individual patients is often problematic. Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETS) — bundles of chromatin fibers released from activated neutrophils that enmesh microorganisms — contribute to thrombus formation and are occasionally found in patients with malignancies. Might the presence of NETS be a risk factor for VTE?

Now, investigators for the Vienna Cancer and Thrombosis Study have conducted a single-center, prospective, cohort trial involving of 946 patients with newly diagnosed or progressive malignancies to determine whether a biomarker of NET formation (citrullinated histone H3) is a predictor of VTE.

Results we…