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Vol.53 No.6 contents | Japanese/English |
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- Case Report -
A Case of Small Cell Lung Cancer with Garcin Syndrome
Yusuke Moriyama1, Keisuke Watanabe1, Masaharu Shinkai1, Hideto Goto2, Yoshiaki Ishigatsubo3, Takeshi Kaneko11Respiratory Disease Center, Yokohama City University Medical Center, Japan, 2Department of Respiratory Medicine, National Hospital Organization Yokohama Medical Center, Japan, 3Department of Internal Medicine and Clinical Immunology, Yokohama City University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan
Background. Garcin syndrome consists of unilateral palsies of almost all cranial nerves without either sensory or motor long-tract disturbances or intracranial hypertension and can be caused by malignant tumors at the skull base. Only two cases in which lung cancer was detected based on the presence of Garcin syndrome symptoms have been reported. Neither of the patients showed improvements in their neurologic symptoms following chemotherapy or radiation therapy. We herein report the case of a patient with Garcin syndrome due to lung cancer whose neurologic symptoms improved after chemotherapy. Case. A 61-year-old female presented with hoarseness and dysphagia and underwent a neurologic examination. Left IX, X, XI and XII nerve palsies were found, and she was diagnosed with Garcin syndrome. Brain CT showed a tumor at the left skull base, and chest CT revealed a tumor in the right upper lobe. A biopsy specimen obtained from the left skull tumor demonstrated bone metastasis of small cell lung cancer. The patient received chemotherapy with carboplatin+etoposide starting in September 2011, and her hoarseness and dysphagia improved after the first course of therapy. Chest and brain CT also revealed remarkable treatment efficacy. Conclusions. Clinicians should consider the possibility of a tumor at the skull base in patients who demonstrate hemi-multiple cranial nerve dysfunction. This case suggests that when the tumor responds to treatment, it is possible to improve the neurological symptoms caused by the skull base metastasis of lung cancer.
key words: Lung cancer, Garcin syndrome, Skull metastasis
Received: March 11, 2013
Accepted: August 13, 2013
JJLC 53 (6): 755-759, 2013
