Can leukemia cause brain damage?

Yes: A patient with acute leukemia and a very high white cell count can develop leucostasis with diminished blood flow to organs including brain. Also, patients with leukemia can bleed excessively and develop a stroke. There are other possibilities depending on the type of leukemia and the status of the patient.

Lymphoma/vasculitis: Lymphoma (a kind of a brain tumor) and in rare cases strokes through plugging of the small vessels through changes induced by the lymphoma could cause brain damage. A MRI scan can help to diagnose this. Less specific but related is transient or potentially permanent brain damage secondary to the treatment of leukemia.

Yes: Although multiple other organs are of primary concern, leukemia can involve the meninges, and create a "carcinomatous meningitis", and also, cause at a distance, a dementia like state, a "limbic encephalitis", or even scattered focalized strokes due to hypercoagulopathy.

Yes: Leukemic cells can cause braiin damage by infiltrating brain tissue and also causing leukemic meningitis. Unfortunately, medication used to treat leukemia and radiation of the head, can also cause brain damage.