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November 12, 2025Scientific Reports1 citationsOpen Access

Development and validation of a risk assessment tool for ischemic stroke in cancer patients

TKTomohiro KawanoYGYasufumi GonTMToshitaka Morishima

Key Result

The AHANDS score demonstrated superior discrimination compared to the Khorana score for predicting ischemic stroke within 2 years of cancer diagnosis (c-statistic 0.703 vs. 0.54; p < 0.0001).

Study Design

Type

Cohort (n=58,598)

Multicenter

Yes

Structured PICO

Does the AHANDS score improve the prediction of ischemic stroke in cancer patients compared to the Khorana score?

P
Population
58,598 cancer patients (26,717 in the development cohort from University of Osaka Hospital and 31,881 in the external validation cohort from Osaka International Cancer Institute)
I
Intervention
AHANDS score (Age ≥ 75 years, Hypertension, Atrial fibrillation, high Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, elevated D-dimer level, and cancer Stage IV or distant metastasis)
C
Comparator
Khorana score (in the development cohort)
O
Outcome
Newly diagnosed ischemic stroke within 2 years of diagnosis of cancerhard clinical

The AHANDS score is a novel, validated risk assessment tool that effectively predicts the 2-year risk of ischemic stroke in cancer patients, outperforming the established Khorana score.

Main Result

Absolute Event Rate: 0.703% vs 0.54%

p-value: p=<0.0001

Limitations

  • Inability to obtain medication history, including antithrombotic agents and chemotherapy
  • Cohorts comprised mainly Japanese patients, restricting generalizability to other populations
  • Incidences of ischemic stroke were lower than in other studies, possibly due to missing data from patients taken to other hospitals
  • Inability to obtain medication history, including antithrombotic agents and chemotherapy, for inclusion in the statistical analysis
  • Cohorts comprised mainly Japanese patients, restricting the generalizability of the findings to other groups
  • Incidences of ischemic stroke in the cohorts were lower than in other studies, possibly due to missing data from patients taken to other hospitals

Abstract

Cancer patients have an increased risk of ischemic stroke. However, there is no reliable risk prediction model. We aimed to create a risk prediction model for ischemic stroke in cancer patients within the first 2 years after cancer diagnosis. A cohort of 26,717 cancer patients from the University of Osaka Hospital was used to develop the model. A cohort of 31,881 patients from Osaka International Cancer Institute was used for external validation. Data in the development cohort generated an AHANDS score: Age ≥ 75 years, Hypertension, Atrial fibrillation, a high Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, an elevated D-dimer level, and cancer Stage IV or distant metastasis at the time of cancer diagnosis. Discrimination was assessed using the c-statistic. We compared the AHANDS and Khorana scores in the development cohort. Ischemic stroke occurred within 2 years of diagnosis of cancer in 163 patients (0.61%) in the development cohort and in 99 (0.31%) in the validation cohort. The AHANDS score performed better than the Khorana score (c-statistic 0.703 vs. 0.54; p < 0.0001). A similar result was obtained in the external validation cohort (c-statistic 0.75). This score is intended to guide future stroke prevention strategies in patients with cancer.

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Cite This Study

Kawano et al. (2025) conducted a cohort in Cancer (n=58,598). AHANDS score vs. Khorana score was evaluated on Discrimination (c-statistic) for ischemic stroke within 2 years of cancer diagnosis (p=<0.0001). The AHANDS score demonstrated superior discrimination compared to the Khorana score for predicting ischemic stroke within 2 years of cancer diagnosis (c-statistic 0.703 vs. 0.54; p < 0.0001).

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a194fc45d70402e70d94445https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-23958-0
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