Why did you (and your colleagues) write this paper? What was its main purpose?

XIAOQIAN LI

Current practice guidelines recommend that appropriately selected low-risk PE patients may be considered for early hospital discharge or home treatment, and several prognostic models have been derived and validated for the identification of these low-risk patients. However, it is unclear which model is optimal for screening low-risk patients with PE and active cancer. The main purpose of our study is to validate and compare the performance of different clinical prognostic scores (including generic and cancer specific prognostic scores) in PE patients with active cancer, especially their ability in identifying low-risk patients who may be suitable for outpatient treatment. 

What are the main conclusions? 

XIAOQIAN LI

Cancer-specific PE prognostic scores (RIETE and POMPE-C) performed better than generic scales (PESI and Hestia) and a cancer-specific VTE prognostic scale (modified Ottawa) in identifying low-risk PE patients with active cancer who may be suitable for outpatient treatment.

What are the paper's implications? - to the public? -to medical professionals?

XIAOQIAN LI

Patients with active cancer who develop PE do have increased risk for adverse outcomes compared to general population, but we should not classified all those patients as high-risk just due to their malignancy status. Some of these patients also present low incidence of short-term adverse complications. Our study showed that cancer-specific PE prognostic scores (RIETE or POMPE-C) can effectively identifying these low-risk patients who may be able to be managed safely without hospitalization. And selecting appropriate low-risk patients with PE and active cancer for outpatient management could relieve some of the medical and economic burden and improve the quality of life of these patients.

Are the findings clinically significant? Should the findings change practice?

XIAOQIAN LI

The findings in our study is of clinical significance which indicate cancer-specific PE prognostic scores maybe useful in selecting appropriate low-risk PE patients with active cancer for outpatient management, but multicenter, prospective studies are still needed to further validate these scores before they can be introduced to clinical practice.