Frequency and Characteristics of Incidental Pulmonary Embolism in Cancer Patients: A Retrospective Study at a Large Oncology Center in Saudi Arabia.

Introduction: Oncology patients are predisposed to incidental-asymptomatic Pulmonary Embolism (PE) which has a substantial morbidity and mortality in untreated patients. As the cancer patients frequently undergo contrast enhanced Computed Tomography (CT) scanning for staging their primary disease, there is a higher chance of detecting unsuspected PE.

Methodology: Our sample included a retrospective review of one-thousand consecutive oncology patients who had CT scan of the chest for reasons other than PE.