[Recent advances of paraneoplastic neuromuscular syndromes]

Paraneoplastic neuromuscular syndromes reveal heterogeneous clinical features and often associate with particular tumor types. Patients presenting with one of the more distinctive syndromes, such as subacute cerebellar degeneration and Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome, should undergo a careful search for detecting an occult malignancy. At present, an autoimmune pathogenesis has been clearly demonstrated only for the Lambert-Eaton syndrome. Specific autoantibodies in other syndromes may be diagnostic in identifying an underlying malignancy as a tumor marker. The precise role of antibodies in producing tissue damage and clinical manifestation is still controversial.