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Toxic leukoencephalopathy with axonal spheroids caused by chemotherapeutic drugs other than methotrexate

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Authors

Lim, Ka Young; Kim, Seong-Ik; Kim, Hyunhee; Kang, Jeongwan; Park, Jin Woo; Won, Jae Kyung; Shin, Dong-Yeop; Park, Sung-Hye

Issue Date
2022-08-03
Publisher
BMC
Citation
BMC Neurology, 22(1):288
Keywords
AutopsyChemotherapyChemobrainLeukoencephalopathyAxonal spheroids
Abstract
Background
The objective of this report is to share the clinicopathological features of chemotherapy-induced toxic leukoencephalopathy, which is a rare and under-recognized disease, clinically characterized by rapidly progressive cognitive loss that often leads to sudden death.
Case presentation
A 64-year-old woman and a 63-year-old man, who had both suffered from a rapid deterioration of consciousness, were autopsied under the clinical impressions of either the central nervous system graft versus host disease (CNS-GVHD), infectious encephalitis, or autoimmune encephalitis. Both patients had been treated with multiple chemotherapy regimens, including adriamycin, cytarabine arabinoside, daunorubicin, fludarabine, azacitidine, and allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation to treat hematological malignancies (acute myelogenous leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome). Neuropathological findings at autopsy revealed rarefaction and vacuolar changes of the white matter with axonal spheroids, reactive gliosis, and foamy macrophage infiltration, predominantly in the visual pathways of the occipital and temporal lobes. Damaged axons exhibited immunoreactivity to beta-amyloid, consistent with axonopathy. However, there was no lymphocyte infiltration that suggested CNS-GVHD or any type of encephalitis.
Conclusion
The neuropathology found in the presented cases had the characteristic features of toxic leukoencephalopathy (chemobrain). Our cases showed that toxic leukoencephalopathy can also be caused by chemotherapy drugs other than methotrexate.
ISSN
1471-2377
Language
English
URI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12883-022-02818-8

https://hdl.handle.net/10371/184471
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12883-022-02818-8
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