Epilepsy in patients with brain tumors and other cancers.

Epilepsy is common among patients with supratentorial, especially slow-growing tumors. Several newer antiepileptic drugs have fewer side effects and drug interactions than do older drugs. Seizure control, however, may require complete lesion resection, with or without removal of an additional "epileptogenic zone." Among patients with systemic cancer, parenchymal or leptomeningeal metastases can cause epilepsy, and potentially reversible medical and neurologic perturbations can lead to acute symptomatic seizures.