Summary
An autopsy case of a 56-year-old woman who had carcinoma of the corpus uteri and peripheral neuropathy with predominantly motor manifestations is described. The neurological abnormalities included subacute weakness of the limbs and loss of deep reflexes, which improved after the surgical removal of the uterine carcinoma. Neuropathologically, peripheral nerves mainly presented features of axonal degeneration with a mild loss of myelinated fibres. Anterior horns of the spinal cord showed central chromatolysis of the motor nerve cells and many spheroids without neuronal loss. Axonopathy of peripheral nerves was considered to be the main pathological process in this paraneoplastic syndrome.
Article PDF
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Asbury AK, Johnson PC (1978) Pathology of peripheral nerve. Saunders, Philadelphia
Babikian VL, Stefansson K, Dieperink ME, Arnason BGW, Marton LS, Levy BE (1985) Paraneoplastic myelopathy: antibodies against protein in normal spinal cord and underlying neoplasm. Lancet II:9–50
Brain L, Croft PB, Wilkinson M (1965) Motor neurone disease as a manifestation of neoplasm. Brain 88:479–500
Bruyn GW (1979) Carcinomatous polyneuropathy. In: Vinken PJ, Bruyn GW (eds) Handbook of clinical neurology, vol 38. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 679–693
Graus F, Cordon-Cardo C, Posner JB (1985) Neuronal antinuclear antibody in sensory neuropathy from lung cancer. Neurology 35:538–543
Greenlee JE, Brashear HR (1983) Antibodies to cerebellar Purkinje cells in patients with paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration and ovarian carcinoma. Ann Neurol 14:609–613
Henson RA, Urich H (1982) Cancer and the nervous system. Blackwell, Oxford
Lennox B, Prichard S (1950) The association of bronchial carcinoma and peripheral neuritis. Q J Med 19:97–110
McLeod JG (1984) Carcinomatous neuropathy. In: Dyck PJ, Thomas PK, Lambert EH, Bunge R (eds) Peripheral neuropathy, vol 2. Saunders, Philadelphia, pp 2180–2191
Norris FH (1979) Remote effects of cancer of the spinal cord. In: Vinken PJ, Bruyn GW (eds) Handbook of clinical neurology, vol 38. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 669–677
Rowland LP, Defendini R, Sherman W, Hirano A, Olarte MR, Latov N, Lovelace RE, Inoue K, Osserman EF (1982) Macroglobulinemia with peripheral neuropathy simulating motor neuron disease. Ann Neurol 11:532–536
Schold SC, CHo E-S, Somasundaram M, Posner JB (1979) Subacute motor neuronopathy: a remote effect of lymphoma. Ann Neurol 5:271–287
Stephens TW, Rousgas A, Ghose MK (1966) Pure motor neuropathy complicating carcinoma of bronchus recovered after surgery. Br J Dis Chest 60:107–109
Stoll DB, Lublin F, Brodovsky H, Laucius JF, Patchefsky A, Cooper H (1984) Association of subacute motor neuronopathy with thymoma. Cancer 54:770–772
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yamada, M., Shintani, S., Mitani, K. et al. Peripheral neuropathy with predominantly motor manifestations in a patient with carcinoma of the uterus. J Neurol 235, 368–370 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00314236
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00314236