Arterial thrombosis in leg associated with increased risk of cancer

Arterial thrombosis in the leg is associated with an increased risk of cancer.Dr. Jens Sundbøll and associates conducted a study to evaluate the risk of cancer in patients of arterial thrombosis.The researcher found that the cancer risk is continuously increased but decreases in strength over time. After the first six months with 3-fold increased risk compared with a control group without blood clots, it falls during the next six months to 'only' a forty percent increased risk. Once the first year after the blood clot has passed, the risk of cancer is continuously 15 percent increased.The study has been published in the journal Circulation.

"It is especially, but not only, the smoking-related forms of cancer that show up after the arterial thrombosis. The risk is highest for lung and pancreatic cancer, both of which are related to smoking. However, other forms of cancer such as colon cancer and leukaemia are also overrepresented," says Jens Sundbøll about the research results.

"We know that blood platelets and coagulation factors change in cancer patients and that the blood has an increased tendency to form blood clots in cancer patients. It is therefore likely that undetected cancer discloses itself through a lower limb arterial thrombosis. Similarly, one can imagine that undetected cancer located in the close proximity of the arteries supplying the leg grows into the arteries and sends off thrombi via the bloodstream down into the leg," says Jens Sundbøll.