Article Text
Summary
A pure sensory neuronopathy (also referred to as a sensory ganglionopathy) is one of a handful of classical neurological paraneoplastic syndromes. Current guidelines recommend that in cases of sensory neuronopathy, a search for an underlying malignancy be pursued for up to 4 years. We report the case of a 52-year-old woman with a sensory neuronopathy who was eventually diagnosed with a cholangiocarcinoma 6 years after the onset of her disease. A CT fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) scan performed 18 and 24 months after disease onset failed to identify an underlying neoplasm. Immunomodulatory treatment with corticosteroids, intravenous immunoglobulins and plasma exchange were ineffective. Investigations for Sjogren’s disease were negative. A third FDG-PET performed 6 years after symptom onset identified a cholangiocarcinoma, which was confirmed histologically following open resection. Since the tumour was removed, our patient’s condition has not progressed, but there has been no improvement and she remains severely disabled.
- neuromuscular disease
- peripheral nerve disease
- hepatic cancer
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Footnotes
Contributors AMR wrote the first draft of the manuscript. JB, TP and MMR revised the manuscript. All authors were involved in the clinical care of the patient.
Funding AM Rossor is funded by a Wellcome Trust post doctoral fellowship for clinicians (110043/Z/15/Z).
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent Obtained.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.