Abstract
This paper reports a 57-year-old man with gastric cancer who developed leukoencephalopathy during administration of carmofur after gastric resection, which almost subsided after the drug was withdrawn. The patient underwent a total gastrectomy with Roux-en Y reconstruction and group 4 lymph nodes dissection for gastric cancer on April 28, 1997. Administration of carmofur was started in the outpatient clinic on July 1, and the patient was readmitted to the hospital because of disturbance of consciousness on August 31. Carmofur-induced leukoencephalopathy was diagnosed. Carmofur was withdrawn immediately after admission, and we had to observe his clinical course because of no available therapy. After a transient life-threatening condition, the patient's symptoms gradually subsided and almost complete cure was attained 152 days after the onset of symptoms. It is important for carmofur-induced leukoencepaholopathy to keep the disease in mind at the beginning of administration; to prevent the onset of the disease; and to take a persistent attitude to the treatment no to give up to the end once it occurs.
