Acute meningitis and cerebellar dysfunction complicating high-dose cytosine arabinoside therapy

A patient with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) who was treated with high-dose cytosine arabinoside (Ara-C) 3 g/m2 twice daily, developed reversible acute aseptic meningitis and signs of cerebellar dysfunction after a total dose of 24 g Ara-C. To our knowledge this is the first case report of meningitis complicating intravenous high-dose Ara-C therapy.