What is a paraneoplastic neurological syndrome?
Paraneoplastic syndromes or remote effects of cancer on the nervous system, are neurological disorders of unknown cause that occur at a higher frequency in patients with cancer than in the general population. Some of these disorders, including limbic encephalitis or Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome (LEMS), are usually associated with cancer, whereas others, such as sensorimotor neuropathy, may have multiple causes which may or may not be cancer-related. In patients with cancer, the development of neurological symptoms is frequently due to metastatic or direct involvement of the nervous system by the tumor. Other common neurological complications include neurotoxicity from chemotherapy and radiation therapy, vascular and metabolic disorders, infections, and much less frequently, paraneoplastic syndromes. The frequency of neurological paraneoplastic syndromes is low. In series of patients with cancer, mild or subclinical muscular weakness or peripheral neuropathies not explained by othe
