Shared Decision-making Process for Unprovoked vEnous THromboEmbolism Management. (ETHER )

Condition(s) studied

Investigational drug(s) / intervention(s)

Usual Care Group: Patients will be managed as regards their anticoagulant treatment according to usual practice and in accordance with international guidelines.

shared decision-making process: The intervention is based on a strategy based on a shared decision-making process which is a collaborative process that involves a patient and their healthcare professional working together to reach a joint decision about care (anticoagulant treatment). The shared decision-making process will be conducted as follows: * Step 1: prepare the risk estimates (risk of recurrent VTE, risk of bleeding) for the patient, based on time-dependent multicomponent risk prediction scores and socio-anthropological scales (TDMI) and other validated risk prediction scores and evidence-based medicine; * Step 2: Communicating risks, benefits and consequences to the patient; * Step 3: Make a joint decision about treatment and care, and agree together when this will be reviewed.

Study summary

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) including deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) is a frequent disease and the third most common cause of cardiovascular death in the world after myocardial infarction and stroke. Anticoagulant therapy drastically reduces the risk of early VTE recurrence and death, but it exposes patients to a substantial risk of bleeding. Hence, determining the optimal duration of anticoagulant treatment for VTE is a major public health issue.

When major transient risk factors for VTE are identified (major surgery, immobilization...), patients generally do not need to extend anticoagulation beyond 3 months, whereas for VTE diagnosed in the context of cancer, therapeutic anticoagulation is required for as long as the cancer is considered "active".

However, in more than 50% of cases, venous thromboembolic disease occurs spontaneously, i.e. without any significant clinically detectable circumstance (known as unprovoked venous thromboembolic disease). In such patients, the risk of recurrence is high (35% recurrence rate at 5 years, with a 10% risk of death per recurrence). Scientific societies therefore recommend continuing anticoagulant treatment "indefinitely" (i.e. without programming a stop date or long-term treatment). However, this practice exposes these patients to an ongoing, non-negligible increase in the risk of bleeding, which could ultimately exceed the risk of recurrence of venous thrombo-embolic disease.

Optimizing anticoagulant therapy beyond the first three to six months of treatment is therefore a crucial and challenging issue, which could improve the long-term prognosis of patients with unprovoked thromboembolic venous disease.

Based on the quantitative and qualitative approaches implemented in MORPHEUS project granted by European Commission (HORIZON-HLTH-2022-TOOL-11-01 call), the investigators have combined predictive personalized medicine, through the use of risk biomarkers, with a patient-centered model of medicine, which, while based on an understanding of the patient's experience, leading to develop Time-Dependent Multicomponent risk prediction scores and socIo-anthropological scales (TDMI) integrated in a shared decision-making process regarding anticoagulant treatment duration in patients with a first episode of unprovoked VTE.

The aim of this study is to demonstrate that this strategy, based on a medical decision-making process shared between patients and physicians and including TDMI, reduces the risk of recurrence of thromboembolic venous disease (fatal or non-fatal), the risk of bleeding and all-cause mortality, and is associated with greater patient satisfaction after a first episode of unprovoked thromboembolic venous disease.

Eligibility

Primary outcome measure(s)

• Hierarchical composite of adjudicated all-cause mortality, adjudicated symptomatic recurrent VTE (fatal or non-fatal PE or proximal DVT), adjudicated major and clinically relevant non-major bleeding, and patient's satisfaction — From inclusion to 18th month follow-up
  For the statistical analysis, the investigators will analyse hierarchically each component of the composite (all-cause mortality, then VTE recurrence, then major bleeding or clinically relevant non-major bleeding and then patient's satisfaction in this order) using a win ratio approach to assess the primary composite outcome.

Trial sites (20)

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