A malignancy work-up in patients with cancer-associated (paraneoplastic) autoimmune diseases: pemphigus and myasthenic syndromes as cases in point (review).

Although some autoimmune diseases are known to be associated with a higher incidence of cancers, they are not usually considered as paraneoplastic diseases, but rather as autoimmune diseases that may be neoplasia-associated, since currently it is not known whether the tumor leads to their development, or alternatively another underlying condition turns the patients prone to both cancer and autoimmunity. We review the association of cancer with pemphigus, paraneoplastic pemphigus, myasthenia gravis and Eaton-Lambert syndrome, and discuss the importance of looking for an occult malignancy in a patient with a newly-diagnosed autoimmune disease that is known to be associated with cancer.