Plasmatic hypercoagulation in patients with breast cancer: role of heme oxygenase-1.

Breast cancer is an important health threat to women worldwide, and is associated with a 9-14% incidence of thrombophilia. Of interest, patients with breast cancer have been noted to have an increase in endogenous carbon monoxide production via upregulation of heme oxygenase-1 activity. Given that it has been demonstrated that carbon monoxide enhances plasmatic coagulation in vitro and in vivo, we sought to determine whether patients with breast cancer had an increase in endogenous carbon monoxide and concurrent plasmatic hypercoagulability.