[Two cases of hyperammonemic patients treated by chemotherapy for colorectal cancer]

Gan To Kagaku Ryoho. 2012 May;39(5):839-42.
[Article in Japanese]

Abstract

We report two patients having hyperammonemic encephalopathy while being treated with chemotherapy for colorectal cancer. The first patient was a 69-year-old man with sigmoid colon cancer, having a massive invasion to the urinary bladder. He received SOX therapy following a pelvic exenteration operation. After the third course of SOX therapy, he presented with general fatigue and repeated seizures, and blood examination showed a high level of serum ammonium. He was diagnosed as hyperammonemic encephalopathy. The second patients was a 60-year-old woman with ascending colon cancer and liver metastasis having portal vein tumor thrombosis, who was given a palliative resection of ascending colon, and then underwent modified FOLFOX6 therapy. At the second course, she fell into a deep coma, and blood examination revealed a high level of serum ammonium. In both patients, treatment with infusion of branched-chain amino acid solutions resolved the symptoms of encephalopathy. Acute neurotoxicity caused by hyperammonemic encephalopathy during chemotherapy for colorectal cancer is rare and not well recognized, but it is a clinically important complication. We should pay more attention to hyperammonemic encephalopathy of patients receiving chemotherapy for colorectal cancer.

Publication types

  • Case Reports
  • English Abstract
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Antineoplastic Agents / adverse effects*
  • Antineoplastic Agents / therapeutic use
  • Colonic Neoplasms / drug therapy*
  • Colonic Neoplasms / pathology
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Hyperammonemia / chemically induced*
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Neoplasm Staging

Substances

  • Antineoplastic Agents