Remote effect of malignancy on the nervous system in children.

A 13-year-old boy with Hodgkin's disease developed acute polyneuropathy and autoimmune hemolytic anemia. Sural nerve biopsy and postmortem examination demonstrated no metastatic involvement and a lack of cellular inflammatory infiltration in the nervous system. There was significant axonal degeneration in peripheral nerves and the dorsal funiculus. These findings suggest a non-metastatic polyneuropathy associated with Hodgkin's disease, and similar cases, predominantly in adult patients, have been reported. This case emphasizes the occurrence of a paraneoplastic syndrome in children, though such syndromes appear to be rare compared with adults.