Abnormal coagulation and deep venous thrombosis in patients with advanced cancer

Many studies have demonstrated increased coagulation activation in cancer p atients and have shown evidence of chronic, low-grade disseminated intravas cular coagulation, although most patients remained asymptomatic. In general , patients have not been screened for deep venous thrombosis (DVT). We scre ened 98 patients with advanced malignancy for DVT using light reflection rh eography. Coagulation profiles of DVT and non-DVT groups were studied. We f ound a high prevalence of DVT (50%) on screening. Overall, the patients had raised levels of fibrinogen (66% patients), factor VIII:C (43%), fragment 1 + 2 (71%) and TAT levels (89%). Patients with DVT had a significantly low er level of fibrinogen than those without (4.0 g/dl, SD 1.4, compared with 4.7 g/dl su 1.6, P = 0.04). There was no significant difference in other co agulation or liver function tests between the DVT and non-DVT groups. The w ide variation of results makes their interpretation difficult and unlikely to be of predictive value in estimating individual thrombotic risk.