Paraneoplastic neurological disorders represent remote effects of cancer without invasion
of tumor cells into the nervous system. Limbic encephalitis is a distinct entity mostly
associated with small-cell carcinoma of the lung. We present the cases of two teenage
girls who were admitted with clinical symptoms typical for limbic encephalitis. In
the course of the disease, they exhibited characteristic evolutionary changes of brain
MRI abnormalities. Onset of neurological symptoms and type of underlying neoplasia
were different in both patients. In one girl the initial workup led to the diagnosis
of nodular sclerosing Hodgkin disease which so far had not caused any symptoms besides the described neurological
abnormalities. A diagnostic brain biopsy showed inflammatory changes and excluded
invasion of malignant cells into the central nervous system. The other patient had
been diagnosed with a small ceil carcinoma of the ovary several months before neurological
and brain MRI abnormalities were observed. This is the first report in which clinical
picture, evolution of MRI abnormalities, and - in one case - characteristic neuropathological
changes are suggestive of paraneoplastic limbic encephalitis in two adolescent girls.
Paraneoplastic limbic encephalitis - Childhood -
Hodgkin disease - Small cell carcinoma of the ovary
