Stent placement for malignant vena cava obstruction demonstrated an overall complication rate of 10.6% with no serious adverse events requiring invasive intervention in a Japanese nationwide inpatient database of 301 patients.
Overall adverse events after stent placement for malignant SVC/IVC syndrome occurred in 10.6% of patients.
No adverse event required invasive treatment such as embolization; red blood cell transfusion was needed in a small proportion of patients.
Short-term mortality after stenting was notable: 5.0% at 7 days after stenting and 11.6% at 30 days in-hospital after admission.
Respiratory failure was more common after SVC stenting than IVC stenting, while other adverse events and mortality were comparable between groups.
Underlying malignancies and stent use patterns differed between SVC and IVC groups.
This study used a nationwide Japanese hospital database to look at how safe it is to place a stent (a small mesh tube that holds a vessel open) in the large veins of the chest (superior vena cava) or abdomen (inferior vena cava) when a cancer is pressing on or blocking them. It included 301 patients treated at 137 hospitals between 2019 and 2023, of whom 187 had a chest vein stent and 114 had an abdominal vein stent. About 1 in 10 patients (10.6%) had an adverse event. Blood transfusion was needed in 3.3%, and no patient needed invasive treatments such as embolization to control a complication. Deaths were not uncommon, with 5.0% dying within 7 days of stenting and 11.6% within 30 days of admission, which likely reflects how advanced the underlying cancers were. Respiratory failure was more common after chest vein stenting, while other complications and death rates were similar between the two sites. This research suggests that stenting for cancer-related vena cava blockage has a relatively low rate of serious procedural complications in real-world practice. Because it is a retrospective database study relying on diagnosis codes, it cannot show whether stenting is better than other treatments, and it should not be taken as individual medical advice.
Ozawa M, Nakama R, Inoue N, Miyamoto Y, Sone M, Fushimi K. (2026). Patient characteristics and the safety of stent placement for malignant vena cava syndrome in Japan: a nationwide analysis.. Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-026-11400-8