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Cancer is an established risk factor for venous thromboembolism (VTE), but risk varies from patient to patient. Discovering laboratory abnormalities that are associated with VTE would help identify patients at greater risk while also improving the management of this complication. Investigators conducted a prospective study in cancer patients to determine whether elevated platelet counts increase likelihood of VTE and correlate with thrombopoietin levels. They evaluated 665 patients with newly diagnosed or progressive solid tumors of the gastrointestinal tract (157), breast (139), lung (127), prostate (107), pancreas (55), and kidney (31), as well as patients with miscellaneous tumors (49).
After median follow-up of 13 months, VTE manifested …