[New prognostic and predictive factors in advanced colorectal cancer]

Cancer patients often show a clinical tendency to thromboembolic events. This tendency is due to tumor cell-related factors together with the damage of the vascular endothelial exerted by chemotherapy treatment. Gastrointestinal tumors especially contribute to these types of events. More recently, the implication of tumor angiogenesis in clotting/fibrynolisys and plasminogen systems activation has been addressed in cancer patients. Finally, some hemostasis and angiogenesis-related factors such as platelets, von Willebrand factor, fibrinogen, plasminogen activator inhibitor type-1, D dimer, and vascular endotelial growth factor have been highlighted as new potential response and survival predictors in colorectal cancer patients. In this review article, the current evidence supporting the use of these proteins in assessing prognosis in colorectal cancer patients is critically exposed and discussed.