Prevalence of pulmonary embolism in 127 945 autopsies performed in cancer patients in the United States between 2003 and 2019

Abstract Background Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a potentially fatal disease, but data on the incidence of fatal PE in cancer patients are scant. Objective We sought to estimate the proportion of cancer patients with PE at autopsy. Methods For this retrospective cohort study, all autopsy reports of cancer patients were retrieved from PALGA: Dutch Pathology Registry and used for data extraction. The primary outcome was PE at time of autopsy, defined as any clot obstructing a pulmonary artery. The secondary outcome was venous thromboembolism, defined as the composite of thrombotic PE, deep vein thrombosis, splanchnic vein thrombosis, or internal jugular vein thrombosis. Results A total of 9571 …