An overview of anti-epileptic therapy management of patients with malignant tumors of the brain undergoing radiation therapy

Seizures are the most common symptomatology among patients with malignancies of the brain, with reported rates of 15-95%. Seizures are often the initial manifestation of an intracranial malignancy, though 20-45% of patients will develop seizures later in the course of their disease [1–13]. The underlying pathophysiology of epilepsy among brain tumor patients is multifactorial and incompletely understood, but likely included physical and biochemical changes in the surrounding neural tissue. Proposed mechanisms include edema, increased intracranial pressure, changes in synaptic vesicles, neuronal migration, intercellular communication, angiogenesis, and neurotransmitter concentrations [1,2,14–19].

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