438 American Society of Hematology Thrombosis and Cancer: The Role of Screening for Occult Cancer and Recognizing the Underlying Biological Mechanisms

The association between cancer and thrombosis is well recognized. What is not known, however, is the exact relationship between these two common medical conditions. Although the development of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in a patient with known cancer is the most common presentation, in some patients, VTE may precede the diagnosis of malignancy by many months. The variation in clinical presentation is likely due to the heterogeneous biology of different tumor types and also reflects the limita-tions of detection or available diagnostic methods. Accumulating evidence now suggests that critical oncogenic events may also trigger activation of the coagulation cascade, leading to a prothrombotic envi-ronment that not only manifests as venous thromboem