Older adults with cancer are more likely to have had a heart attack or stroke in the months prior to their cancer diagnosis compared with similar adults who do not have cancer during the same period, according to a report published online today in Blood.
Older adults with cancer are more likely to have had a heart attack or stroke in the months prior to their cancer diagnosis compared with similar adults who do not have cancer during the same period, according to a report published online today in Blood. Lung and colon cancers, as well as advanced-staged cancers, appear to be most strongly associated with an elevated risk of heart attack and stroke caused by blood clots in the arteries.
The study is the largest and most systematic evaluation of these events leading up to a cancer diagnosis, according to researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.
“Our data show there is an associated risk of ischemic stroke and heart attack that begins to increase in the five months before the cancer is officially diagnosed and peaks in the month just before,” said lead study author Babak Navi, MD, MS, an associate professor of neurology in the Department of Neurology and of neuroscience in the Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute at Weill Cornell Medicine, and a neurologist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. “These results suggest that cancer’s effect on the clotting system may be what’s predominantly driving the associated risk of heart attacks and stroke.”
Read more at American Society of Hematology
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