TABLE 1.
Patient characteristics at autopsy
| — |
All Cancer Patients (N = 9571) |
Cancer Patients with pulmonary embolism at autopsy (N = 1191) |
|---|---|---|
| Male, (%) | 5786 (60.5%) | 640 (53.9%) |
| Median age, y (IQR) | 70 (62–78) | 68 (60–76) |
| Median time between diagnostic cancer diagnosis and autopsy, days (IQR) | 404 (49–2271) | 270 (30–1763) |
| Cancer not pathologically confirmed prior to autopsy (%) | 3215 (33.6%) | 398 (33.4%) |
| Year of autopsy (%) | — | — |
| 2008‐2011 | 4324 (45.2) | 514 (43.2) |
| 2012‐2015 | 3038 (31.7) | 391 (32.8) |
| 2016‐2020 a | 2209 (23.1) | 286 (24.0) |
| Primary cancer site, (%) | — | — |
| Biliary | 161 (1.7) | 27 (2.3) |
| Brain | 122 (1.3) | 10 (0.8) |
| Breast | 415 (4.3) | 56 (4.7) |
| Colorectal | 988 (10.3) | 129 (10.8) |
| Gastroesophageal | 585 (6.1) | 87 (7.3) |
| Gynecological | 251 (2.6) | 43 (3.6) |
| Head and neck | 120 (1.3) | 10 (0.8) |
| Hematological cancer | 1191 (12.4) | 80 (6.7) |
| Kidney | 468 (4.9) | 55 (4.6) |
| Liver | 276 (2.9) | 39 (3.3) |
| Lung | 2509 (26.2) | 324 (27.2) |
| Melanoma | 89 (0.9) | 6 (0.5) |
| Pancreas | 611 (6.4) | 118 (9.9) |
| Prostate | 641 (6.7) | 58 (4.9) |
| Sarcoma | 145 (1.5) | 18 (1.5) |
| Small bowel cancer | 155 (1.6) | 14 (1.2) |
| Thyroid | 114 (1.2) | 16 (1.3) |
| Urinary bladder | 396 (4.1) | 57 (4.8) |
| Unknown primary tumor | 242 (2.5) | 36 (3.0) |
| Other | 92 (1.0) | 8 (0.7) |
| Metastatic disease at autopsy, (%) b | — | 811 (68.1) |
Abbreviations: IQR, interquartile range.
a
Autopsies from 2016 to April 2020.
b
Cancer stage only extracted for patients with pulmonary embolism at death.