Cancer in Young Adults With Ischemic Stroke

Background and Purpose—Cancer is a risk factor for ischemic stroke. Little is known about cancer among young adults with ischemic stroke. We studied the frequency of cancer and its association with long-term risk of death among young patients with first-ever ischemic stroke. Methods—1002 patients aged 15 to 49 years, registered in the Helsinki Young Stroke Registry, and with a median follow-up of 10.0 years (interquartile range 6.5–13.8) after stroke were included. Historical and follow-up data were derived from the Finnish Care Register and Statistics Finland. Survival between groups was compared with the Kaplan–Meier life-table method, and Cox proportional hazard models were used to identify factors associated with mortality. Results—One or more cancer diagnosis was made in 77 (7.7%) patients, of whom 39 (3.9%) had cancer diagnosed prestroke. During the poststroke follow-up, 41 (53.2%) of the cancer patients died. Median time from prestroke cancer to stroke was 4.9 (1.0–9.5) years and from stroke to pos...