Thrombotic complications of overt cancer

Over 135 years after the original description by Armand Trousseau, who observed that deep-vein thrombosis of the extremities often accompanies visceral cancer, thromboembolism in overt cancer patients is usually underdiagnosed before death. While autopsy results almost uniformly show a 50% frequency of thromboembolism in cancer patients, the reported clinical incidence rises to 15% for untreated patients.1