Elevation of the D-dimer cut-off level might be applicable to rule out pulmonary embolism for active cancer patients in the emergency department.

Recent guidelines for diagnosing acute pulmonary embolism (PE) are based on clinical decision rules and D-dimer. D-dimer measurement is recommended only for patients who are 'PE-unlikely'. We aimed to assess the current guidelines for cancer patients and to determine an optimal D-dimer cut-off level.