Primary Venous Thromboembolism and Cancer Screening

For more than a century we have known that deep venous thrombosis or pulmonary embolism may be the presenting feature of an occult cancer. The association between venous thromboembolism and cancer raises three questions: What is the mechanism, how strong is the association, and what are the implications for patient care?The mechanisms of cancer-induced venous thrombosis have been widely studied, mainly in patients with overt cancers. These mechanisms include invasion of cancer cells into the vessel wall, compression of the vasculature by a tumor, and hypercoagulability induced by the cancer. Studies of patients with solid tumors or leukemia using . . .