Grant: Project Grant

Patients with cancer often need to have a catheter (PICC line or port-o-cath) inserted in one of their arm veins to deliver chemotherapy, blood products or other medications. These catheters can cause blood clots in veins (deep vein thrombosis) or lung arteries (pulmonary embolism). Blood clots and their treatment can have serious consequences for patients with cancer, including delay in anti-cancer treatment, bleeding, or death. Small doses of blood thinners have been shown to decrease the risk of having these blood clots. However, there is no proof that these blood thinners can prevent blood clots associated with catheters. Our research question is whether a small dose of a blood thinner (called rivaroxaban) is safe and effective to prevent blood clots in cancer patients with catheters. We plan to include 1828 patients (914 receiving rivaroxaban and another 914 receiving placebo) in 9 Canadian centers to answer our research question. We hope our study will also help avoid blood clots in these patients and ensure that patients with cancer and a catheter do not have any complications.