Stroke: It May Signal Undetected Cancer

Previous studies have suggested an increased stroke risk among cancer patients. New findings show that the opposite may also be true.

"Subclinical cancer can manifest as a thrombo-embolic event," Adnan Qureshi MD, professor of neurology, neurosurgery, and radiology at the Zeenat Qureshi Stroke Institutes and Centracare Health, St. Cloud, Minn. said, in a news release.

Researchers found that about 87 percent of all stroke cases occurred as a result of an obstruction within a blood vessel that supplies blood to the brain, otherwise known as an ischemic stroke.

For the study, researchers examined 3,247 adults over the age of 35 who had survived a non-disabling ischemic stroke. Findings revealed that 133 of the patients developed cancer over a 2-year period following a stroke.

Researchers found that the ischemic stroke patients had higher cancer rates than the general population, involving a range of cancers including skin, prostate, lung, breast and bladder cancer.

Furthermore, they found that stroke survivors who developed cancer had up to three times a higher chance of dying when compared to surrivors who did not get cancer.

"We observed an annual rate of age-adjusted cancer incidence which appeared to be higher among ischemic stroke patients compared with the general population," the researchers concluded.

Further research will tell more about the connection. One possible theory is that those who had a stroke had undetected cancer. 

More information regarding the findings were presented at the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association International Stroke Conference in Nashville, Tenn.

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