Dr Alex C. Spyropoulos Discusses the Patient-Centered Directions of Rivaroxaban Research

According to Alex C. Spyropoulos, MD, FACP, FCCP, FRCPC, professor of medicine at the Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine, research on rivaroxaban to prevent thrombosis is moving from determining efficacy to evaluating patient-centered outcomes in a variety of clinical situations, as evidenced by new studies like EINSTEIN-CHOICE and the MARINER trial.

Transcript (slightly modified)

What are the objectives of your ongoing research, the MARINER trial?

Looking at a strategy of extended thromboprophylaxis with rivaroxaban, this time compared with placebo, in high-risk, medically ill patients. This likely at the end will be the largest trial of its kind, of extended thromboprophylaxis in medically ill. It’s using symptomatic endpoints. It’s using also very up-to-date, very innovative risk assessment strategies, namely a validated risk assessment model, the IMPROVE model, as well as a recently valuated biomarker, the d-dimer, in identifying patients with high-risk features.

I think importantly with MARINER, we are using symptomatic, what we call patient-centric outcomes, such as symptomatic DVT [deep vein thrombosis], symptomatic PE [pulmonary embolism, and VT-related [venous thromboembolism] death as an outcome, so we’re using those outcomes for the first time.

What do studies like EINSTEIN-CHOICE signify about the future directions of thrombosis research?

I think what we’re seeing more and more is, again, we’re gaining ground with respect to both efficacy and now safety with direct oral anticoagulants, specifically rivaroxaban, in now many clinical scenarios and clinical situations, so a trial like EINSTEIN-CHOICE really just starts expanding our choices and our momentum with respect to treatment of these patient groups.