ABSTRACT
Paraneoplastic autoimmune neurological disorders are caused by a targeted immune attack on the nervous system, as the consequence of a potentially effective tumor immune response initiated by antigens derived from a systemic cancer, either new or recurrent. These disorders affect women twice as frequently than men. The neurological symptoms are not due to metastases and, in fact, metastases beyond regional lymph nodes are uncommon. Neurological symptoms precede the identification of a cancer in the majority of patients. The neoplasms encountered most frequently are lung (smallcell), breast and gynecologic (mullerian) carcinomas, seminoma, thymoma, Hodgkin’s lymphoma and neuroblastoma (in children). A coexisting and usually unrelated neoplasm is found in approximately 15% of patients [e.g., carcinomas of prostate, colon, rectum, or kidney, skin (basal cell and squamous cell), melanoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and nonHodgkin’s lymphoma].
