Neurologic manifestations of neoplastic and radiation-induced plexopathies.

Metastatic plexopathy is often a disabling accompaniment of advanced systemic cancer, and may involve any of the peripheral nerve plexuses. Brachial plexopathy most commonly occurs in carcinoma of the breast and lung; lumbosacral plexopathy is most common with colorectal and gynecologic tumors, sarcomas, and lymphomas. Neoplastic plexopathy is often characterized initially by severe, unrelenting pain followed by development of weakness and focal sensory disturbances.

Neurotoxicity of radiation therapy.

Direct or incidental exposure of the nervous system to therapeutic irradiation carries the risk of symptomatic neurologic injury. Central nervous system toxicity from radiation includes focal cerebral necrosis, neurocognitive deficits, and less commonly cerebrovascular disease, myelopathy, or the occurrence of a radiation-induced neoplasm. Brachial or lumbosacral plexopathy are the most common syndromes of radiation toxicity affecting the peripheral nervous system.

[Radiation myelopathy and plexopathy].

Radiation myelopathy (RM) is a relatively rare disorder characterized by white matter lesions of the spinal cord resulting from irradiation. It is divided into two forms by the latent periods: transient RM and delayed RM. The delayed RM develops usually non-transverse myelopathy symptoms such as dissociated sensory disturbance, unilateral leg weakness, and gait disturbance with asymmetric steps.

Neurological manifestations of neoplastic and radiation-induced plexopathies.

Metastatic plexopathy is often a disabling accompaniment of advanced systemic cancer and may involve any of the peripheral nerve plexuses. Brachial plexopathy most commonly occurs in carcinoma of the breast and lung; lumbosacral plexopathy is most common with colorectal and gynecologic tumors, sarcomas, and lymphomas. Regardless of the location, neoplastic plexopathy is often characterized by severe, unrelenting pain.

Fecal incontinence after pelvic radiotherapy: evidences for a lumbosacral plexopathy. Report of a case.

Purpose: Clinical manifestations of radiation-induced lumbosacral plexopathy remain a rare event. We report the case of a 62-year-old woman with neurogenic fecal incontinence that occurred after radiotherapy of cervical carcinoma.

Methods: Anorectal, bladder, and lower limb sensory-motor functions, as biologic and morphologic explorations, were performed on repeated occasions.

Radiation induced lumbosacral plexopathy in gynecologic tumors: clinical findings and dosimetric analysis.

Purpose: Radiation-induced lumbosacral plexopathy is a rare complication of pelvic irradiation.

Methods And Materials: We report four cases among 2,410 patients treated to the pelvis for carcinoma of the cervix and carcinoma of the endometrium. All patients received both external beam and intracavitary radiation.

Nerve plexus metastases.

Metastatic plexopathy is often a disabling accompaniment of advanced systemic cancer and may involve any of the peripheral nerve plexus. Brachial plexopathy most commonly occurs in carcinoma of the breast and lung; lumbosacral plexopathy is most common with colorectal and gynecologic tumors, sarcomas, and lymphomas. Regardless of the location, carcinomatous plexopathy typically is associated with severe unrelenting pain as the cardinal clinical feature.

[A case of delayed radiation lumbo-sacral plexopathy].

We report a 47-year-old woman who developed a slowly progressive lumbosacral plexopathy with mixed sensorimotor losses in the lower extremities. The symptoms were apparent 8 years after x-ray irradiation for an ovarian carcinoma. Neurological examination showed mild weakness and absent deep tendon reflexes of bilateral lower extremities, and hypesthesia to all modalities in anterior aspects of bilateral lower thighs, in dorsum pedis and soles.

Diagnosis and treatment of lumbosacral plexopathies in patients with cancer.

Eleven patients were diagnosed as having lumbosacral plexopathy at M. D. Anderson Hospital, Houston, from August 1981 through July 1982.