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Summary. Patients with acute venous thromboembolism have an increased risk for occult malignancy. Limited screening for these malignancies has become common practice but little is known about its usefulness. This is a prospective cohort followup study in consecutive patients with acute venous thromboembolism. All patients underwent a routine clinical evaluation for malignancy, if negative, followed by a limited diagnostic work-up consisting of abdominal and pelvic ultrasound and laboratory markers for malignancy. Clinical follow-up was conducted to detect screening failures. The routine clinical evaluation was performed in 864 patients and revealed malignancy in 34 (3.9%) of them. Among the remaining 830 patients the limited diagnostic work-up revealed 13 further malignancies. During follow-up, cancer became symptomatic in 14 patients who were negative for cancer at screening (sensitivity of limited diagnostic work-up, 48.1%). Malignancies that were identified by the limited diagnostic work-up were early stage in 61% of cases vs. 14% in cases occurring during follow-up. Most patients with occult cancer had idiopathic venous thromboembolism and were older than 70 years. A limited diagnostic work-up for occult cancer in patients with venous thromboembolism has the capacity to identify approximately one-half of the malignancies. Identified malignancies were predominantly in an early stage.

Summary.  Introduction : Secondary prevention of venous thromboembolism (VTE) with vitamin K antagonists is often problematic in patients with cancer. We prospectively evaluated the effectiveness and safety of long‐term subcutaneous dalteparin in a series of consecutive patients with symptomatic VTE and metastatic cancer. Patients and Methods : The study included 203 patients, aged 36–96 years. The initial treatment consisted of a 7‐day course of subcutaneous dalteparin according to body weight. Then, patients received a fixed dose of 10 000 IU dalteparin once daily for at least 3 months. In patients developing transient thrombocytopenia the dose was reduced to 5000 IU daily while the platelet count remained <50 000; and to 2500 IU daily while it remained <10 000. Patients undergoing any surgical intervention during the study were put on 5000 IU daily during the first 4 days, switching thereafter to 10 000 IU. Patients undergoing any other invasive procedure (i.e. biopsies, punctures) received a 5000 IU dose the same day, instead of 10 000 IU. Results : Eleven patients (5.4%) developed major bleeding complications (6 fatal) during the 3‐month study period, and 18 patients (8.9%) developed VTE recurrences (2 patients died). There were no higher complication rates in patients with either liver or brain metastases, nor during thrombocytopenia, surgery or invasive procedures. Conclusions : Fixed dose 10 000 IU subcutaneous dalteparin once daily for 3 months was not associated with more complications in patients with liver or brain metastases. The dose adjustment for patients with thrombocytopenia, surgery or invasive procedures was safe too.