Colon Cancer: An Unusual Presentation with a Paraneoplastic Syndrome

Dermatomyositis (DM) is a rheumatological disorder characterized by proximal myositis and distinctive dermatological manifestations. It can be an isolated clinical syndrome or, in rarer cases, can be the initial presentation for an underlying malignancy as a part of a paraneoplastic syndrome. In thi...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Reham Almasoud, Rasha Alloush, Labib Al-Ozaibi
Format: article
Language:EN
Published: Karger Publishers 2021
Subjects:
R
Online Access:https://doaj.org/article/cd2a577ba4a647f0a32bfe9bbac0eb3e
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Dermatomyositis (DM) is a rheumatological disorder characterized by proximal myositis and distinctive dermatological manifestations. It can be an isolated clinical syndrome or, in rarer cases, can be the initial presentation for an underlying malignancy as a part of a paraneoplastic syndrome. In this case report, we describe a case of a 51-year-old lady who presented with proximal myopathy, typical DM skin rash, dysphagia, and markedly elevated creatine kinase. She was diagnosed with a seronegative DM and her malignancy screening revealed a mass in the ascending colon. During her hospital course, she also developed microangiopathic hemolytic anemia, another paraneoplastic disorder typically associated with late stages of malignancy, manifested as hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia, and low fibrinogen. The patient received intravenous corticosteroids and underwent tumor resection with following resolution of her both rheumatological and hematological manifestation. Unfortunately, due to her general poor health, she developed sepsis and died in the hospital.