Frequent occurrence of therapeutically reversible CMV-associated encephalopathy during radiotherapy of the brain.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Neurological decline during radio(chemo)therapy of the brain is often attributed to disease progression or side effects of radiotherapy. Diagnosis of opportunistic neurotropic infections such as cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections is uncommon, even though high-grade gliomas and some brain metastases are known to contain CMV particles. We prospectively examined the frequency of CMV encephalopathy during radiotherapy of the brain.

Methods

Fifty patients requiring whole-brain radiotherapy for brain metastases (n = 27) or local radio(chemo)therapy of the brain for high-grade gliomas (n = 23) were observed in the prospective observational GLIO-CMV-01 study. MRIs and blood samples were obtained before, halfway through, and at the end of radiotherapy. MRIs were screened for

SUBMITTER: Goerig NL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5793811 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature