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Updated: Sep 4, 2025

Quantifying Cognitive Decrements Caused by Cranial Radiotherapy
Published on: October 18, 2011
Wernicke's encephalopathy in advanced cancer
Samantha Brown1, Suzanne Hutt-Williams2
1Palliative Medicine, University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust, Bournemouth, UK samantha.brown@uhd.nhs.uk.
Abstract:
This 54-year-old woman with metastatic breast cancer presented with severe confusion, incontinence and self-neglect. MRI suggested Wernicke's encephalopathy (WE) without any history of alcohol misuse. The patient's symptoms seemed to not respond to acute treatment. Cancer progression was assumed to be causing her condition and she was discharged to a nursing home with community palliative care team follow-up. This case demonstrates the natural course of cancer-associated WE and eventual improvement with thiamine therapy. It also illustrates a role for specialist palliative care follow up for patients discharged to a nursing home for expected end-of-life care.
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