If you have cancer and develop a blood clot in your leg, you're often also dealing with anemia, which is low red blood cell count. This can make treatment decisions tricky. A new analysis looked at whether a blood thinner called edoxaban works differently for these patients depending on how long they take it.
The study involved 601 patients, most of whom had anemia. It compared taking the medication for 12 months versus just 3 months. The goal was to see which approach better prevented another dangerous clot. In patients with anemia, 1.5% of those on the 12-month treatment had another clot or died from one, compared to 8.4% of those on the 3-month treatment. In patients without anemia, the rates were 0% and 4.9%, respectively. This shows that the longer treatment was better at preventing clots in both groups.
When it came to the risk of serious bleeding, the study found no significant difference between taking the drug for 12 months or 3 months, regardless of whether a patient had anemia. This means that for cancer patients with this specific type of leg clot, a full year of treatment offers stronger protection against another clot without a clear increase in major bleeding risk, even if they have anemia.