Paraneoplastic dystonia and spastic ataxia syndrome as a manifestation of oral carcinoma

Abstract

Paraneoplastic syndromes are a heterogeneous group of disorders that present with varied symptoms in the presence of a tumor but are unrelated to the growth of primary malignancies, invasiveness, or metastases. Paraneoplastic neurological syndromes are estimated to affect <1% of the patients with cancer. They are commonly associated with small-cell lung carcinoma and hematologic and gynecologic malignancies and are rarely observed in head and neck malignancies. The diagnosis of paraneoplastic neurological syndromes may precede, be concurrent with, or follow the diagnosis of a malignant tumor. In this report, we present the case of a 55-year-old man who presented with rapidly progressive spastic ataxia and neurobehavioral symptoms with a background of longstanding cervical dystonia, which subacutely progressed to generalized dystonia. The patient was diagnosed with oral squamous cell carcinoma.