Long-term bleeding events post-percutaneous coronary intervention in patients with malignancy with and without anticoagulant therapy

The prevalence of malignancies in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is increasing with aging. Active malignancy is a significant contributor to high bleeding risk. For cancer patients requiring oral anticoagulant (OAC) therapy, the choice between direct oral anticoagulants (DOAC) and warfarin is critical. The aim of this study was to investigate long-term bleeding events in patients with malignancy undergoing PCI. The CLIDAS (Clinical Deep Data Accumulation System) multicenter database includes data from seven tertiary medical hospitals in Japan. This retrospective analysis included 6451 patients who underwent PCI between April 2013 and March 2019 and completed 3-year follow-up. The patients were divided into two groups; No malignancy (n = 5787) and Malignancy group (n = 664). Malignancy was defined by a history of cancer treatment. These groups were further subcategorized based on OAC therapy; (1) No malignancy without OAC (n = 5134), (2) No malignancy with DOAC (n = 261), (3) No malignancy with warfarin (n = 392), (4) Malignancy without OAC (n = 589), (5) Malignancy with DOAC (n = 38), and (6) Malignancy with warfarin (n = 37). The primary outcome was the incidence of bleeding events, defined according to the Global Use of Streptokinase and t-PA for Occluded Coronary Arteries classification of moderate and severe bleeding. The secondary outcomes were major adverse cardiac events (MACE) and net adverse clinical events (NACE). Multivariable Cox regression analysis showed that the malignancy with warfarin group had a significantly higher risk of bleeding events compared to the malignancy without OAC group (hazard ratio [HR], 3.64; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.38-9.61, p value = 0.009). No significant differences were observed for MACE (HR, 1.39; 95% CI 0.59-3.25, p value = 0.454) or NACE (HR, 1.62; 95% CI, 0.80-3.29; p value = 0.184). Malignancy patients receiving warfarin were associated with a higher risk of bleeding events. DOACs may represent a preferable alternative to warfarin with regard to bleeding risk in patients with malignancy undergoing PCI.