Ischemic stroke in patients with cancer: is it different from usual strokes?

BackgroundIt remains unclear whether the characteristics of ischemic stroke in patients with cancer (ISC) differ from usual ischemic strokes (non-ISC). Although a small number of studies have been conducted to characterize ISC, the status of cancer has rarely been considered seriously.AimsWe aimed to investigate the features of ISC according to the status of cancer, and compare their characteristics with those of non-ISC.MethodsWe assessed and classified 204 ISC patients into two groups: 104 with active (ISC-active) and 100 with inactive (ISC-inactive) cancer. For each ISC patient, two age- and gender-matched ischemic stroke patients without history of cancer were selected as non-ISC control subjects. We compared the clinical/laboratory data, stroke mechanisms, and diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) lesion patterns between ISC-active and non-ISC patients, and between ISC-inactive and non-ISC patients.ResultsISC-active patients demonstrated higher C-reactive protein (CRP) and D-dimer, more frequent cryptogen...