ACUTE ISCHEMIC STROKE IN PATIENTS WITH CANCER: RISK FACTORS, CLINICAL AND IMAGING OUTCOMES

LEVENT OCEK¹, UFUK SENER², IREM ILGEZDI², METIN MURAT OZCELIK², YASAR ZORLU²

¹Usak University Education and Research Hospital, Usak, Clinic of Neurology, Turkey - ²Tepecik Education and Research Hospital, Izmir, Clinic of Neurology, Turkey

Introduction: Cancer patients have higher risk of stroke compared with the normal population. The relationship between this increased risk and traditional vascular risk factors is not known exactly. The aims of this study were to investigate ischemic strokes, who had a history of cancer or diagnosed cancer during etiologic scanning, in terms of the cancer type, likely causes of stroke and demographic data.

Materials and methods: In this retrospective study, the stroke patients with known cancer or diagnosed with cancer during fol- low-up were selected by screening the data of 1002 acute ischemic stroke patients who were followed-up in the hospital between 2012 and 2015 and demographic, clinical and imaging findings were recorded. Temporal association between cancer type, presence of metastasis, treatment administered, response to therapy, cancer and stroke, possible stroke etiology and stroke risk factors of the patients were investigated.

Results: An association was determined between acute ischemic stroke and cancer in 58 (5.8%) of our patients. Sixty-nine per- cent of our patients were males and the mean age was 66.5-year. Cancers most commonly found were lung (20.7%), colorectal (15.5%) and prostate cancer (13.8%). The most frequently found risk factors for ischemic stroke were hypertension and diabetes mel- litus. Twelve point one percent of the patients did not have any traditional risk factors for ischemic stroke. Eight point six percent of the patients had ischemic stroke as a presenting symptom of cancer. Sixty-eight point nine percent of the patients had supratentorial infarcts and 10.3% of them infratentorial infarcts. Supratentorial infarcts were most commonly located in the middle cerebral region, and infratentorial infarcts were located in the brainstem.

Conclusion: Cancer patients with ischemic stroke showed different risk factors, stroke etiology and infarct localizations. Therefore, cancers need to be particularly studied in patients who do not have traditional risk factors for ischemic stroke.