Association of Vitamin K and Non-Vitamin K Oral Anticoagulant Use and Cancer Incidence in Atrial Fibrillation Patients

The association between the use of vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) and cancer risk reduction remains unclear. We aimed to assess the association between the use of VKAs or direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) and the incidence of cancer in a large cohort of patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) by means of a population-based, propensity-weighted cohort study using population-wide databases including patients diagnosed with nonvalvular AF (NVAF) followed for up of 5 years (median 2.94 years). We created two cohorts based on the initiation therapy (VKA or DOAC). Initiation with VKA or DOAC was defined as filling a prescription with no previous exposure in the preceding 12 months. Cancer diagnoses of any type and for specific tumors (lung, colon, prostate, bladder, and breast). We included 39,989 patients, 31,200 (78.0%) in the VKA cohort. Incidence rate for any cancer was 12.45 per 1,000 person-year in the DOAC cohort vs. 14.55 in the VKA cohort (adjusted hazard ratio (HR): 1.16, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.02-1.32). In secondary outcomes, no differences were found for specific types of cancer, such as lung (HR: 1.28, CI: 0.89-1.83), colon (HR: 0.84, CI: 0.62-1.13), prostate (HR: 1.40, CI: 0.94-2.10), bladder (HR: 1.07, CI: 0.76-1.52), and breast (HR: 1.05, CI: 0.66-1.69). Sensitivity analyses yielded similar results. Subgroup analyses also produced consistent findings, except for men, for whom VKA was associated with a lower risk of colon cancer (HR: 0.68, 95% CI: 0.48-0.96). Our results do not confirm a chemoprotective effect of VKA when compared with DOAC in a large, real-world cohort of patients with NVAF followed for up to 5 years.

Automated summary

This study found no clear association between the use of vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) and reducing cancer risk, compared to direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs), in a large cohort of atrial fibrillation patients. The results did not show a chemoprotective effect of VKA over a follow-up period of up to 5 years.