A rare case of a brain tumor in a woman with MELAS syndrome
Original title: Glioblastoma in a Patient With MELAS Syndrome: A Case Report.
How far along is this research?
- Lab cells
- Animals
- Review
- Tested in people
This was tested in people. That is the most reliable kind of research we share.
This is a report about one patient, not a test of a new treatment.
The short version
Doctors describe one woman with a rare genetic condition who also developed a fast growing brain tumor.
What was studied. This is a report about a single patient, a 60-year-old woman with MELAS syndrome. MELAS is a genetic condition that affects how the body's cells make energy.
What they found. Her health problems started at age 40 with diabetes, hearing loss in both ears, and trouble moving her left eye. She was found to have MELAS at age 56, after her son was diagnosed. She never had the stroke like episodes that often come with MELAS, but she had 2 days of headache, vomiting and confusion, and a scan showed a mass in her brain.
What this means, and what it doesn't
What it could mean: Surgeons removed the whole tumor, and tests showed it was a glioblastoma: The fastest-growing type of glioma (grade 4). Treatment usually starts soon after diagnosis: surgery first, then radiation and chemotherapy. See the glossary, a grade 4 brain tumor. She did not recover well after surgery. She then had the standard treatment for this tumor, but it grew back in a big way within one month. Doctors raise the idea that the way her cells make energy may have affected how her tumor behaved.
What it doesn't mean: This is one person's story, not a study. It does not prove that MELAS causes brain tumors, and it does not prove that MELAS makes a tumor grow faster. It cannot tell you how any other person will do. There is no new treatment here, and nothing in this report is a cure.
Source: PubMed, July 1, 2026 · Read the original
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