Peripheral neuropathy with predominantly motor manifestations in a patient with carcinoma of the uterus.

An autopsy case of a 56-year-old woman who had carcinoma of the corpus uteri and peripheral neuropathy with predominantly motor manifestations is described. The neurological abnormalities included subacute weakness of the limbs and loss of deep reflexes, which improved after the surgical removal of the uterine carcinoma. Neuropathologically, peripheral nerves mainly presented features of axonal degeneration with a mild loss of myelinated fibres. Anterior horns of the spinal cord showed central chromatolysis of the motor nerve cells and many spheroids without neuronal loss. Axonopathy of peripheral nerves was considered to be the main pathological process in this paraneoplastic syndrome.