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. 2020 Feb 4;10(3):238–239. doi: 10.1177/1941874420902872

Stabilization of Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy After Pembrolizumab Treatment

Ronak K Kapadia 1,2,, Douglas Ney 2
PMCID: PMC7271622  PMID: 32549952

A 69-year-old woman presented with subacute abulia, memory impairment, and gait disturbance, 5 months after completing 6 cycles of R-CHOP (rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone) chemotherapy for systemic diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain revealed multifocal white matter abnormalities on Fluid-attenuated inversion recovery imaging (Figure 1A), suspicious for progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, and subsequently confirmed on brain biopsy. The patient received 4 treatments with pembrolizumab, based on recent reports of possible efficacy.1 At 4-month follow-up, there was cognitive improvement and repeat MRI brain (Figure 1B) showed stabilization/improvement in white matter changes with accompanying atrophy.

Figure 1.

Figure 1.

A, MRI brain FLAIR images showing multifocal, nonenhancing (not shown) white matter abnormalities. B, On 4-month follow-up: MRI brain FLAIR images showing significant stabilization/resolution of FLAIR abnormalities with associated atrophy in previously affected areas. FLAIR indicates Fluid-attenuated inversion recovery; MRI, magnetic resonance imaging.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding: The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD: Ronak K. Kapadia, MD, FRCPC Inline graphic https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9820-0486

Reference

  • 1. Cortese I, Muranski P, Enose-Akahata Y, et al. Pembrolizumab treatment for progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. N Engl J Med. 2019;380(17):1597–1605. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

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