How patients often react to diagnosis

Many patients with cancer-related blood clots (also called cancer-associated thrombosis) find the experience of the clot to be more distressing than the initial cancer experience — sometimes because the diagnosis is not communicated in the same sensitive way, and sometimes because of traumatic symptoms associated with the clot. 

It can feel like a watershed moment, says Prof. Simon Noble, MD. Patients think “This is serious. I’ve just had another threat to my life. And now what?” Research on general, non-cancer patients who have had a clot suggests they may develop symptoms suggestive of post-traumatic stress (PTSD). The diagnosis of a blood clot can have a profound psychological impact on people.