One life-threatening complication of lung cancer surgery is the formation of blood clots in the lungs (also called pulmonary embolism, PE) or in the legs (also known as deep vein thrombosis, DVT). Together, they would be defined as venous thromboembolic events (VTE). Several presentations at AATS 2015 shed new light on this serious problem. In the first prospective study of its kind, the incidence of VTE was found to be higher than previously reported, with a 5.4 percent VTE-specific mortality rate. Of concern to clinicians, most events were asymptomatic and occurred after patients were discharged from the hospital. The second report highlights the importance of screening for VTEs, especially since the majority of lower extremity VTEs found after pneumonectomy would have gone undiagnosed and untreated without screening. The third report describes a risk assessment tool for VTEs that is applied for the first time to predict an individual’s risk of VTEs after lung cancer surgery, which can help clinicians decide whether prolonged anti-clotting therapy is warranted.