The challenge of paraneoplastic syndrome

Abstract

Paraneoplastic syndromes can occur in 10% of lung cancer, however gynecomastia is an uncommon paraneoplastic event.

A case of a 68-year-old man, smoker and with chronic alcoholism, presented with a 6 months history of inflammatory polyarthralgias and gynecomastia. It was also observed a temporal relationship with productive cough and weight loss. Despite improvement with corticosteroids and positive antinuclear antibodies, the study was extended. Clinical and imagological findings of liver cirrhosis were excluded, and he was diagnosis with a stage IV lung adenocarcinoma.

Gynecomastia and polyarthritis are uncommon manifestations of oncological disease, with some cases described in the literature, which in this case are associated with lung adenocarcinoma.