Local changes in hemostasis in patients with gastric cancer.

Disorders of haemostasis and haemocoagulation are often seen in cancer patients as a part of the paraneoplastic syndrome. This study describes a novel compound that activates coagulation and also inhibits fibrinolytic system and fibrin degradation products in the gastric juice of 33 patients with gastric cancer. Similar, but less pronounced changes have been found in gastric juice of patients with gastric precancerosis. Procoagulant activity, induced by pathologically changed cells or monocytes, macrophages from tumor stroma, indicates the activation of local coagulation with the production of fibrin. It can be concluded that the local changes of coagulation and fibrinolysis may precede coagulopathies in cancer patients (Tab. 2, Ref. 15). Full Text (Free, PDF) www.bmj.sk.