Epilepsy related to radiotherapy in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Abstract

Objective To investigate the clinical and imaging characteristics of epilepsy in radiation encephalopathy (RE) patients after nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) radiotherapy.Methods One hundred and twelve RE patients after NPC radiotherapy,admitted to our hospital from February 2005 to December 2010,were chosen in our study; these patients were divided into epilepsy group and non-epilepsy group according to the appearance of epilepsy; their clinical and cranial MR imaging and EEG data were collected and compared.Results Epilepsy was a common symptom in RE patients after NPC radiotherapy,with an incidence of 15.2％ (17/112); secondary generalized tonic-clonic (SGTC) seizure was the most common type (9/17),followed by simple partial seizure (5/17).Cystic lesions in the temporal lobe under MRI in RE patients with epilepsy were more common as compared with those in RE patients without epilepsy.EEG recorded scattered sharp waves and sharp slow waves in RE patients with/without epilepsy.Nine RE patients with epilepsy achieved seizure-control without using the antiepileptic drugs after treatment of the primary disease.Conclusion SGTC seizure and simple partial seizure are common types in RE patients after NPC radiotherapy,and antiepileptic drugs can control the seizure. Key words: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma; Radiotherapy; Radiation encephalopathy