[Cutaneous paraneoplastic syndromes (author's transl)]

Cutaneous paraneoplastic syndromes are nonspecific skin manifestations provoked by malignant tumors of internal organs, and which, as a first or early symptom, may suggest the presence of a malignant primary disease. It is necessary to differentiate between the rare, obligatory paraneoplastic dermatoses which are independent of age and almost always tumor specific and skin manifestations which may appear facultatively, usually only in advanced age, as paraneoplastic syndromes. To be excluded from these are non-paraneoplastic skin tumor syndromes which are caused either by a similarly directed carcinogenia noxa or by a common genetic factor.