Comment in:
Numb chin syndrome in cancer patients: etiology, response to treatment, and prognostic significance.
Lossos A, Siegal T.
Department of Neurology, Hadassah Hebrew University Hospital, Jerusalem, Israel.
We retrospectively evaluated 42 consecutive cancer patients with numb chin syndrome (NCS). Breast cancer comprised 64% of the primary tumors, and lymphoproliferative neoplasms comprised 14%. A standard workup (including imaging of the brain, base of skull, and mandible, and CSF analysis) led to the diagnosis of a metastatic etiology in 89% of the patients. Fifty percent of the patients had mandibular metastases, 14% base-of-skull bone lesions, and 22% leptomeningeal seeding. NCS was a late manifestation of malignancy, associated with disease progression in 67% of the patients or heralding a relapse, which was often confined to the leptomeninges, in 31%. Although various therapeutic strategies led to resolution of NCS, median survival after its diagnosis was 5 months when due to bone metastases and 12 months if associated with leptomeningeal seeding.
Publication Types:
PMID: 1603345 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]