Amnesia Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Amnesia, including details on memory loss, causes, treatment, brain injury,.

Paraneoplastic limbic encephalitis: ovarian cancer presenting as an amnesic syndrome.

Bloch MH, Hwang WC, Baehring JM, Chambers SK

Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA. michael.bloch@yale.edu

BACKGROUND: Paraneoplastic limbic encephalitis (PLE) is a rare neurologic manifestation of malignancy. Paraneoplastic limbic encephalitis typically presents with short-term memory loss, seizures, or other limbic system abnormalities. The majority of PLE cases are associated with lung and testicular cancer. CASE: We present the first case of PLE attributable to an epithelial ovarian cancer. The 58-year-old woman presented with rapidly progressing short-term memory loss and amnesia. The diagnosis of ovarian cancer was suspected on the basis of computed tomography scan findings. The patient showed dramatic clinical improvement within 2 weeks of debulking surgery and after the initiation of plasmapheresis and chemotherapy. CONCLUSION: Paraneoplastic limbic encephalitis is a rare complication of ovarian tumors that is potentially reversible with prompt surgical management of the primary tumor, plasmapheresis, and chemotherapy.

Published 1 November 2004 in Obstet Gynecol, 104(5): 1174-7.
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