Paraneoplastic syndrome

Paraneoplastic syndrome: By definition, a paraneoplastic syndrome is not produced by the primary tumor or its metastases (or by compression, infection, nutritional deficiency or treatment of the tumor). A paraneoplastic syndrome is a group of signs and symptoms due to a substance produced by a tumor or in reaction to a tumor. Paraneoplastic syndromes can be due to a number of causes including hormones or other biologically active products made by the tumor, blockade of the effect of a normal hormone, autoimmunity, immune-complex production, and immune suppression. A well-known paraneoplastic syndrome is the syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone (ADH) secretion which perturbs fluid balance, results in the inability to put out dilute urine and causes nausea, vomiting, muscle cramps, confusion and convulsions. Inappropriate ADH secretion can occur, for example, with oat-cell lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, prostate cancer, and Hodgkin's disease as well as a number of other disorders. "Para-" is a prefix with many meanings including resembling, beyond, and apart from. "Neoplastic" means tumoral, pertaining to a tumor. "Paraneoplastic" thus means resembling a tumor, near tumoral, apart from a tumor.