Hand Involvement in Paraneoplastic Syndrome: A Case Report

Cutaneous paraneoplastic syndromes are skin and mucous membrane changes that are associated with cancer. We report a previously healthy 76-year-old man who developed marked finger and thumb contracture, pain, and hypersensitivity of both hands who was diagnosed subsequently as having gastric carcinoma with colonic metastasis. After the gastrointestinal tumors were resected the finger and thumb contracture lessened and the pain eased. Both the temporal relationship between the changes in the hand and the neoplasm and the improvement after resection suggest a paraneoplastic syndrome.