Blood Coagulation Activation in Cancer: Challenges for Cancer Treatment

SummaryIt has been known for over a century that blood coagulation and fibrinolysis pathways are activated systemically in patients with malignancy. Recent studies have revealed evidence for two distinct pathways of interaction between tumor cells and the host coagulation mechanism that include production of either initiators of thrombin formation or expression of plasminogen activators by the tumor cells in situ within intact tumor tissue. Studies in specific in vitro and animal models of malignancy have implicated either tumor cell procoagulants or urokinase in mechanisms of tumor cell proliferation, invasion,…