Recently there has been a lot of debate about how extensive the screening for occult cancer in patients with a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) should be. Cornuz et al. was one of the first to suggest that a limited screening comprising of a comprehensive medical history, physical examination (including breast and rectal examination), routine laboratory tests and chest X-ray (CXR), is an appropriate screening for occult cancer in patients with idiopathic deep vein thrombosis (iDVT) [1]. Extensive screening with computed tomography (CT) scans did not seem to detect more occult cancer in patients with iDVT or give any profit in cancer-related mortality rates, in comparison with the limited screening [2,3].
