Predictors and Risk Assessment Models for Venous Thromboembolism in Patients Diagnosed with Lymphoma: A Systematic Review

Among hematological malignancies, lymphoma is associated with an increased incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) ranging between 4 and 12%. Although Khorana score was validated for stratifying VTE risk in cancer, its discrimination reliability in lymphoma is reduced by the lack of specific predictors. The aim of this systematic review was to summarize the evidence regarding predictors and available risk assessment models (RAMs) for VTE in patients with lymphoma. A systematic search was conducted on PubMed, Embase and Scopus in order to identify papers published until February 2026, which evaluated predictors and RAMs for VTE in patients diagnosed with lymphoma. Out of 592 evaluated papers, 44 met the inclusion criteria. The widely used Khorana score failed to appropriately identify patients with lymphoma at high risk for VTE, while the Thrombosis Lymphoma predictive score (ThroLy) showed modest improvement. Strong predictors for VTE were a poor performance status, older age, previous history of VTE, the use of central venous catheters, and bulky disease. However, the lack of external validation, the small sample size and bias due to confounding factors limit the generalizability of the results. Therefore, larger studies with external validation cohorts are needed to design lymphoma-specific RAMs and to identify predictors with high discrimination power.