Guillain-Barré Syndrome as a Paraneoplastic Manifestation of Small-Cell Carcinoma of Lung

Abstract

Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) encompasses the variants of acute immune-mediated polyneuropathies usually preceded by an infection. A few case reports have associated GBS to neoplastic diseases. It remains unclear whether these are merely coincidental or represent paraneoplastic phenomena. The clinical features of GBS associated with oncological cases do not appear to differ from post-infectious GBS. We report a 74-year-old man in whom small cell carcinoma of lung (SCLC) was diagnosed during a presentation with GBS. Treatment with chemotherapy for SCLC and intravenous immunoglobulins led to complete neurological recovery and tumor regression.

Occam's Razor or Hickam's Dictum: A Paraneoplastic or Coincidental Occurrence of Lung Cancer and Guillain-Barré Syndrome

“…Since the present patient had experienced a prior episode of fever, which may have been related to lung carcinoma, such as obstructive pneumonia, the GBS might have been associated with this preceding infection. Several recent case reports have documented an association between GBS and malignancy (4,5). Another previous report (6) described a case of paraneoplastic motor neuropathy in a patient with a high titer of anti-GM1 ganglioside antibodies associated with esophageal cancer.…”

Guillain-Barré syndrome as a paraneoplastic manifestation of disseminated squamous cell carcinoma

“…A single case-control study has demonstrated a positive association between GBS and cancer4 and several case reports describe GBS occurring alongside malignancy, including cancers of lung,5 6 bladder,7 blood,8–10 colon11 and skin 12. To our knowledge, we present the first case associated with squamous cell carcinoma.…”

Paraneoplastic Neuropathies

“…21 In some patients with CIDP, gastrointestinal malignancies were found during follow-up; however, it is unclear whether the CIDP in those cases was a paraneoplastic phenomenon. In populationbased studies, Guillain-Barr2 syndrome has been reported with Hodgkin lymphoma and small cell lung cancer.…”