Cancer genes and blood clots

摘要

Is abnormal clotting in a cancer patient an unspecific aftermath of tissue and vascular damage, inflammation, or treatment, or is it an intrinsic part of the disease "program" embedded in its oncogenic driver genes? Can there be tumor-specific causes, predictors, and possibly treatments of cancer-associated thrombosis (CAT)? These seemingly simple questions baffled investigators for decades, while CAT continued to exact a toll of human suffering and loss of life, as one of the leading causes of cancer-related mortality.(1,2) In this issue of Blood, Dunbar et al embark on a bold attempt to seek some of the possible answers.