ALK/ROS1 rearrangements: A real hallmark for thromboembolic events in cancer patients?

Venous thromboembolic events (VTEs) represent a major complication in cancer patients, resulting in worsened quality of life, increased health care costs and shorter survival. Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) is among the cancer types associated with the highest incidence of VTEs, but this risk remains heterogeneous and dynamic during disease course. Previous studies showed that the molecular landscape of NSCLC might have a role in conditioning VTEs risk. In detail, accumulating evidence suggests that patients with ALK- and ROS1-rearranged tumors are at increased risk of VTEs. On this point, we first performed an extensive literature search on PubMed and Embase to identify observational cohort studies published from January 2014 to May 2020 assessing the VTEs risk in ALK/ROS1-rearranged patients.