Syndromes neurologiques paranéoplasiques

The paraneoplastic neurological syndrome refers to a neurological disorder occurring in patients suffering from cancer, with no metastatic, iatrogenic, infectious, metabolic or deficiency complications. The whole structure of the central or peripheral nervous system can be affected, and even if some clinical presentations are evocative of a paraneoplastic origin, no one is specific of this aetiology. The presence of auto-antibodies in the sera confirms the existence of a paraneoplastic syndrome and constitutes the basis of the diagnosis of cancer, but they are found only in 50% of the cases. In more than 50% of the cases the paraneoplastic neurological syndrome precedes the discovery of a cancer, which must be actively prospected. Indeed, the treatment of cancer remains the most effective mean to stabilize or improve the neurological disorder.