The risk of phlebitis (venous thrombosis) and pulmonary embolism is higher in cancer, with one in 5 sick people suffering from one of these complications.
The phenomenon of coagulation is the first step in repairing tissue damage. In cancer, coagulation works with inflammation to form the bed for cancer.
The history of this association between cancer and phlebitis (thrombosis) or pulmonary embolism dates from the end of the 19th century when Armand Trousseau described in 1865 that the existence of extensive and recurrent thrombotic phenomena signify the cancerous nature of a stomach disease. . A great semiologist and man of experience, he died a few years later after having himself had this thrombotic symptomatology while he was a carrier of stomach cancer.
The risk of phlebitis and embolism is multiplied by 4 to 7 and, in the event of cancer, the risk of thrombotic recurrence is tripled. The thrombotic episode is also a marker of poor prognosis in cancer because it is associated with increased mortality which reflects the aggressiveness of the tumor.
The frequency of thrombotic disease is however variable depending on the type of tumor, classically solid tumors affecting the pancreas, brain, lung, stomach, colon, kidney are the most at risk (frequency reaching or even exceeding 20 %), and the progressive stage (the more the tumor has progressed to a metastatic stage, the greater the risk).
Blood cancers (haemopathies) are not to be outdone with increased thrombosis frequencies varying from 5 to 60% depending on haemopathies, chemotherapy and patient profiles.
Professor Mohamad Mohty, onco-hematologist and head of department at Saint-Antoine hospital in Paris, answers our questions in a program with Dr Jean-François Lemoine.
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