[Treatment of venous thrombosis in a cancer patient]

One out of five cancer patients develop venous thrombosis, the risk thereof being 4-7-fold in cancer patients compared with the normal population. Venous thromboses in cancer patients are associated with a higher mortality than in other thrombotic patients. Early detection, effective treatment of venous thrombosis along with sufficiently long and appropriately planned post-thrombotic prophylaxis will improve the prognosis. The treatment of venous thrombosis in a cancer patient differs from that in other patients, as prolonged treatment with low molecular weight heparins has been shown to be more effective than other treatments and is likely to be accompanied by favorable effects as regards cancer biology.