Venous Thrombosis and Obscure Visceral Carcinoma

Abstract

The frequent occurrence of venous thrombosis in cases of malignancy either as a postoperative complication or in the terminal stages is general knowledge. But the association of superficial and deep vein thrombosis with obscure and often asymptomatic carcinoma is not so well known. This was first noted by Trousseau * in 1865 and again by Osler¹in 1900, and over the years an occasional case report of this association has appeared in the medical literature. That there is some increase in the thrombosing tendency of the blood in cases of malignancy is evident from all statistical reports, both operative and postmortem. What the relationship is has not been adequately determined as yet. In 1938, in a review of 125 instances of carcinoma of the body and tail of the pancreas discovered at postmortem examination Sproul²found an associated distant venous thrombosis in 56.2% as compared with only 9.7% when