PubMed ID: 2858616
Author(s): Grunwald GB, Klein R, Simmonds MA, Kornguth SE. Autoimmune basis for visual paraneoplastic syndrome in patients with small-cell lung carcinoma. Lancet. 1985 Mar 23;1(8430):658-61. PMID 2858616
Journal: Lancet (London, England), Volume 1, Issue 8430, Mar 1985
Unexplained neurological disorders sometimes develop in patients with cancer, even when the primary tumour or its metastases have not invaded the central nervous system. Visual dysfunction in patients with small-cell carcinoma of the lung is one of these paraneoplastic syndromes and is associated with serum auto-antibodies which react with specific subsets of retinal neurons. These sera have now been shown to react with cell lines derived from small-cell carcinoma. The antibodies recognise a small number of antigens shared by retinal and tumour cells, suggesting that an autoimmune response may be triggered by the tumour.