Does suspicion of deep venous thrombosis or pulmonary embolism increase the risk of subsequent malignant neoplasms compared to controls?
Suspicion of deep venous thrombosis or pulmonary embolism was not associated with a statistically significant difference in subsequent cancer-free survival compared to controls.
• We conducted a noncurrent prospective study of all Olmsted County, Minnesota, residents who had had a lowerextremity venogram, pulmonary angiogram, or lung scan performed because of suspicion of deep venous thrombosis or pulmonary emboli. One hundred thirteen cancer-free patients were followed for 386 person-years from the date of procedure. Nine subsequent cancers were observed compared with 4.5 expected (relative risk, 2.0; 95% confidence interval, 0.9 to 3.8), using total cancer incidence rates for the Rochester, Minn, population. Five hundred seventeen cancer-free controls were followed for 2072 person-years. Twenty subsequent cancers were observed compared with 11.6 expected, yielding a relative risk of 1.7 (95% confidence interval, 1.1 to 2.7). When cases and controls were compared directly, no statistically significant difference in cancer-free survival was found. (Arch Intern Med1987;147:1907-1911)
M. R. Griffin (Sun,) studied this question.