Remote effects of focal cancer on the neuromuscular system.

The remote effects of cancer on the neuromuscular system include type II muscle fiber atrophy, dermatomyositis/polymyositis, myasthenia gravis, the facilitating myasthenic syndrome, peripheral neuropathy (including amyloid neuropathy), and possibly amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The clinical and pathological findings and a number of possible pathokinetic mechanisms of these disorders are discussed. In none is the pathokinetic mechanism known. Hence, much work remains in therapeutically oriented research of the mechanisms in all of the remote effects of cancer on the neuromuscular system.