A rare late side effect of brain radiation that looked like a stroke
Original title: Case Report: SMART syndrome mimicking Todd's paralysis after meningioma irradiation.
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 on one patient in real care, not a tested treatment.
The short version
A man's stroke-like symptoms turned out to be a rare, late side effect of brain radiation, and they got better.
What was studied. This is a report about one patient, a 59-year-old man. He had surgery and radiation for a brain tumor called a meningioma, and he also had seizures.
What they found. Four years after his radiation, he had a seizure. Over the next 24 hours, his face and hand went numb and his face drooped. Scans showed changes in the same part of the brain that had been treated with radiation. Doctors called this SMART syndrome. It usually starts 11.2 years after radiation, on average, so four years is early. He was treated with a steroid and other medicines. Three months later, the scan changes were gone, he felt better, and his seizures had not come back.
What this means, and what it doesn't
What it could mean: New brain symptoms years after radiation do not always mean the tumor is back. They can come from a late side effect of the radiation itself. Knowing this may help doctors find the right cause and treat it.
What it doesn't mean: This is one patient's story, not a study of many people. It does not tell us how often this happens or what the best treatment is. It is not a new therapy and it is not a cure. Doctors still have to rule out stroke, a returning tumor, and infection first, since this is a diagnosis of exclusion.
Source: PubMed, August 19, 2026 · Read the original
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