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Our 24/7 cancer helpline provides support for people dealing with cancer. We can connect you with trained cancer information specialists who will answer questions about a cancer diagnosis and provide guidance and a compassionate ear.
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At our National Cancer Information Center trained Cancer Information Specialists can answer questions 24 hours a day, every day of the year to empower you with accurate, up-to-date information to help you make educated health decisions. We connect patients, caregivers, and family members with valuable services and resources.
Or ask us how you can get involved and support the fight against cancer. Some of the topics we can assist with include:
For medical questions, we encourage you to review our information with your doctor.
A seizure is the uncontrolled movement of muscles. It can happen when nerve cells in the brain become irritated, overexcited, or something puts pressure on them so they don’t work properly. Seizures usually last a few minutes or less, but they can be followed by sleepiness and confusion that can last for several hours or days.
Seizures in cancer patients can be caused by:
The American Cancer Society medical and editorial content team
Our team is made up of doctors and oncology certified nurses with deep knowledge of cancer care as well as journalists, editors, and translators with extensive experience in medical writing.
Avila EK, Chamberlain M, Schiff D, et al. Seizure control as a new metric in assessing efficacy of tumor treatment in low-grade glioma trials. Neuro Oncol. 2017;19(1):12-21.
Brown PD, Butts AM, Parsons MW, Cerhan JH. Neurocognitive effects. In DeVita VT, Lawrence TS, Rosenberg SA, eds. DeVita, Hellman, and Rosenberg’s Cancer: Principles and Practice of Oncology. 11th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2019: 2155-2173.
Costa J, Haddad FG, Costa G, Harb A, Eid R, Kourie HR, Helou JE. Seizures in cancer patients: A vast spectrum of etiologies. Future Neurology. 2019;14(4):doi:10.2217/fnl-2019-0015.
Yust-Katz S, Khagi S, Gilbert MR. Neurologic complications. In Niederhuber JE, Armitage JO, Kastan MB, Doroshow JH, Tepper JE, eds. Abeloff’s Clinical Oncology. 6th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2020:688-.706
Last Revised: February 1, 2020
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