Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 1992;29(4):329-30.
doi: 10.1007/BF00685955.

Interferon-related cortical blindness

O Merimsky  1 , P Nisipeanu, A Loewenstein, I Reider-Groswasser, S Chaitchik
Affiliations
Review

Interferon-related cortical blindness

O Merimsky et al. Cancer Chemother Pharmacol. 1992.

Abstract

The term cortical blindness indicates loss of sight due to bilateral lesions in the occipital lobes. It is a rare but severe side effect produced by chemotherapeutic agents. Cortical blindness was diagnosed in a 75-year-old man who had been treated with alpha-interferon for metastatic renal-cell carcinoma. The absence of focal neurological signs and of abnormal findings as determined by two repeated computed tomography (CT) scans of the brain, which excluded structural damage to the occipital lobes, suggest that metabolic or toxic reactions may have caused the cortical blindness diagnosed in our patient. The temporal relationship between the treatment with alpha-interferon and the development of cortical blindness indicates that this substance may have been the causative agent for this phenomenon.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Cancer. 1980 Feb 15;45(4):764-6 - PubMed
    1. Eur J Cancer. 1990;26(5):596-600 - PubMed
    1. Obstet Gynecol. 1982 Jun;59(6 Suppl):84S-6S - PubMed
    1. Cancer. 1981 Jan 1;47(1):37-40 - PubMed
    1. AMA Arch Neurol Psychiatry. 1957 Dec;78(6):568-84 - PubMed