Cancer patients’ experiences of living with venous thromboembolism: A systematic review and qualitative thematic synthesis:

Background:Cancer-associated thrombosis is common. Recommended treatment is daily injected low-molecular-weight heparin for 6 months. Most studies focus on prophylaxis and treatment; few have explored the patients’ experience.Aims:To identify and synthesise the available literature concerning patients’ experience of cancer-associated thrombosis.Design:Systematic literature review and qualitative thematic synthesis.Data source:MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO (until 10/2016; limited to English) were searched. Eligible papers were qualitative studies of adult patients’ experience of cancer-associated thrombosis. Two researchers screened titles/abstracts/papers against inclusion criteria with recourse to a third for disagreements. Critical Appraisal Skills Programme qualitative checklist tool was used for quality appraisal.Results:A total of 1397 articles were identified. Five qualitative studies (total n = 92; age range 32–84 years) met the inclusion criteria. Participants had various cancer types. Most ha...