Navi BB, Mathias R, Sherman CP, et al. – Given that acute ischemic stroke (AIS) mechanisms can be distinguished by blood mRNA profiles, researchers determined whether AIS associated with cancer would have a distinctive gene expression profile. They prospectively recruited 4 groups of 10 participants at 3 centers from 2009 to 2018, and matched patients in AIS-only and cancer-only groups to patients in the cancer-stroke group by age, sex, and cancer type (if applicable). Patients in the vascular risk factor group were matched to patients in the cancer-stroke and stroke-only groups by age, sex, and vascular risk factors. Overall, 50% of strokes were cryptogenic in the cancer-stroke group. Comparing the cancer-stroke group with the stroke-only group and taking into account cancer-only genes, 438 genes were expressed differently, including upregulation of multiple genes/pathways implicated in autophagy signaling, immunity/inflammation, and gene regulation, including IL (interleukin)-1, interferon, relaxin, mammalian target of rapamycin signaling, SQSTMI1 (sequestosome-1), and CREB1 (cAMP response element binding protein-1). Evidence for a distinctive molecular signature in blood mRNA expression profiles of patients with cancer-related AIS was provided in this analysis. Future studies should, therefore, assess whether blood mRNA can anticipate detection of occult cancer in AIS patients, noted the researchers.