THBD and cancer: Indeed, the specter that thrombin is a tumor-promoting agent and that endogenous anticoagulants such as antithrombin III, protein C, α2-macroglobulin, thrombomodulin and others may act to maintain dormancy in cancer cells that may have been transformed years earlier but have not become clinically detectable has been suggested from clinical evidence on anticoagulation, hypercoagulability and cancer incidence studies [294].