Grant: Project Grant

Cancer patients are prone to have irregular heartbeats and/or blood clots, and blood thinners are routinely used to treat and prevent blood clots that may lead to stroke, death, and other complications. Direct oral anticoagulants, a new class of blood thinners, are increasingly used in cancer patients. This new class of blood thinners has the advantage of being taken by mouth with no need for frequent blood test monitoring. However, these drugs could interact with other drugs including cancer therapies, and cause too much or too little blood-thinning effects and associated problems. Several different types of cancer drugs commonly used to treat prostate cancer may interfere with these blood thinners leading to clotting or bleeding problems. By using large healthcare databases in Ontario, Alberta, and Manitoba, our study sets out to answer the important questions including 1) whether doctors choose particular blood thinner(s) in patients taking these interfering prostate cancer drugs, and 2) whether using certain blood thinners together with these prostate cancer therapies will lead to different clotting or bleeding complications. Our study will be the first and largest of its kind ever done in this population and the results will be used to improve drug safety for patients and their doctors.