Kefah Mokbel, Chair of Breast Cancer Surgery at London Breast Institute, shared on LinkedIn:
“Breast cancer and ischaemic stroke: the risk is highest early after diagnosis.
A nationwide cohort study published in Neurology followed 107,606 women with breast cancer for a mean of 7.2 years.
The authors found that the risk of ischaemic stroke was 59% higher during the first year after breast cancer diagnosis compared with matched women without breast cancer (sHR 1.59; 95% CI 1.34–1.89).
The excess risk was greatest during the first 3-6 months and then steadily declined. By the long-term follow-up, the increased risk was no longer observed.
Overall, 1,155 women (1.07%) experienced an ischaemic stroke during follow-up.
The message is clear: stroke risk following breast cancer is time-dependent, with the greatest vulnerability occurring early after diagnosis and treatment.
This highlights an opportunity for closer cardiovascular surveillance and optimisation of modifiable vascular risk factors during this critical period.
As cardio-oncology continues to evolve, identifying patients at highest risk and when that risk is greatest is just as important as understanding the treatments themselves.
Park YM, Jung W, Kim B, et al. Time-Dependent Association Between Breast Cancer and Risk of Ischemic Stroke: A Nationwide Cohort Study. Neurology. 2026.”
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