POSTERIOR REVERSIBLE LEUKOENCEPHALOPATHY SYNDROME DEVELOPING SECONDARY TO SUNITINIB THERAPY IN A PATIENT WITH METASTATIC RENAL CELL CARCINOMA

NIHAL BOZDAG KAPLAN¹, HAKAN HARPUTLUOGLU², MUSTAFA DIKILITAS², EMIN TAMER ELKIRAN², OZTUN TEMELLI³

¹Department of Medical Oncology, Şişli Hamidiye Etfal Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey - ²Department of Medical Oncology, Inonu University, Faculty of Medicine, Malatya, Turkey - ³Department of Radiation Oncology, Inonu University, Faculty of Medicine, Malatya, Turkey

Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) is characterized by vasogenic edema occurring generally in parietal and occipital areas of the brain as a result of different etiologic causes and it is diagnosed by means of clinical and radiologic asses- sment. Sunitinib is an orally administered tyrosine kinase inhibitor used in the treatment of renal cell carcinoma with its antiangioge- nic and antitumor effects. Fatigue, nausea-vomiting, diarrhea, hypertension, cardiotoxicity, hypothyroidism, neutropenia, and skin toxicity are among common side effects associated with sunitinib therapy. The current report presents a female patient with metasta- tic papillary renal cell cancer who developed posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome as determined by means of clinical and radiologic assessment at 8 months of sunitinib therapy and who completely recovered with antihypertensive, antiepileptic, and antie- dema therapy.