Brain Tumors Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Brain Tumors, including details on symptoms, benign and malignant tumors, gliomas, screening, treatment.

Central nervous system infections in cancer patients.

Pruitt AA

Neurology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 3400 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 10104, USA.

With improved therapies, patients with cancer survive longer. However, both the acute complications of intensive therapies and the risks of chronic immunosuppression have led to an increased incidence of central nervous system (CNS) infections. The presentation and course of common infections may be different from those in patients without cancer, and new syndromes related both to the underlying diseases and to their treatment have complicated the differential diagnosis. Noninfectious disorders such as drug treatment complications, vascular lesions, and radiation effects can mimic CNS infections. The major clinical presentations of CNS infections can be divided into meningoencephalitic syndromes and deficits due to focal mass lesions. The range of pathogens can be narrowed by considering the type of immune deficit present. The two groups of patients who most frequently develop CNS infections are those undergoing procedures for primary brain tumors and hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients. Among several recently recognized syndromes in the latter are infections due to human herpesviruses 6 and 7, West Nile virus, and the immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome.

Published 7 January 2005 in Semin Neurol, 24(4): 435-52.
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