Stroke survivors are at double the risk of cancer

Stroke survivors are at double the risk of developing cancer, new research suggests.

Spanish scientists believe that the potentially deadly blood clots may be triggered by tumours which have yet to cause symptoms.

They said this would help explain why they are diagnosed with cancer after having already suffered a life-changing stroke – giving tumours time to develop.

In two thirds of the cases recorded in a small study, the disease had already spread around the body, known as metastasis – making the cancer deadlier.

Survivors should thus be closely monitored for cancer in the 18 months after they suffered a stroke, the doctors said.

The early results, dubbed ‘interesting’, by researchers at the Hospital de La Princesa, Madrid, were based on medical records of 381 patients.

Researchers believe strokes are triggered by tumours which have yet to spark any symptoms, hence the diagnosis is made later

Lead author Dr Jacobo Rogado said: ‘We found that the incidence of cancer in stroke survivors was almost twice that of the general population.

‘When cancer was diagnosed it was usually at an advanced stage, and the diagnosis was made within six months after a stroke.’

He added: ‘Stroke survivors should be followed clinically for the development of cancer in the 18 months after the diagnosis of stroke.’

All the participants involved in the research had been treated in the stroke unit of the hospital over a period of 24 months.

The scientists found that 7.6 per cent (29) of survivors developed cancer, most frequently in the colon, lung and prostate.

This was higher than the expected incidence of 4.5 per cent (17), based on statistics for the general population, they said.

Nearly half of the cancer diagnoses occurred within the first six months after the patient suffered a stroke.

An analysis showed that the patients had higher levels of fibrinogen in their blood – a protein that helps to form blood clots.

But experts greeted the preliminary findings, presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology congress in Madrid, with caution.

A TELL-TALE SIGN OF STROKE?

Having diagonal creases across your ear lobes may mean you are at increased risk of suffering a stroke, according to research in May.

Scientists who examined 241 people who had experienced a stroke found more than three-quarters of them had the mark, known as Frank’s sign, on their ears.

It’s thought that clogging of the arteries, which increases the risk of a stroke, also leads to poor blood supply to the ear lobes. This would cause a loss of elasticity and, in turn, the visible creasing.

The Israeli researchers who uncovered the findings said doctors should consider adding the ear lobe crease to the list of ‘classic risk factors for the development of stroke’.

Dr Fausto Roila, director of medical oncology, at the Santa Maria della Misericordia Hospital, Perugia, Italy, said the study had its limitations.

He added: ‘The link between stroke and cancer is an interesting issue that has been previously studied.

‘The design of this study has an important limitation, which is the lack of a matched control group; a case-control study would have been more suitable.

‘Moreover, comparing the detected number of incident cases with those observed in a general population, the difference is only 12 patients.

‘This could be due to differences in age between the two groups. The general population includes people of all ages, while the case population is primarily older.’

It comes after Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City researchers found newly diagnosed cancer patients face a higher risk of stroke.

In 2015 they revealed that the risk of the deadly blood clots was highest among those with more aggressive forms of the disease.

Around 150,000 Britons and 800,000 Americans have a stroke each year, a third of whom die within 12 months.

Half the survivors have paralysis, speech problems, personality changes and other disabilities.

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