Current Issue November 2011 | Vol. 37, No. 4
Current Topic
November 2011
Paraneoplastic and Cancer Treatment-Related Rheumatic DisordersKenneth J. Scalapino, MD, and Charles R. Thomas Jr, MD, Guest Editors
Neoplastic diseases are characterized by a diversity of structural, hematologic, metabolic, immunologic, and biochemical abnormalities producing a wide spectrum of associated symptoms. These features of neoplasm are frequently the target of a growing repertoire of cancer therapies that themselves are capable of producing both local and systemic tissue responses. The diversity of tissues impacted and range of clinical presentations of neoplasm and associated neoplastic therapy are rivaled by few other diseases with the exception of rheumatic disorders and it is therefore common that the differential diagnosis of an occult illness includes diseases from each of these categories. The range of pathophysiologic changes produced by neoplastic disease, neoplastic therapy, and rheumatic disorders is similar in that each can either promote or inhibit cellular proliferation, tissue necrosis and fibrosis, ischemia, or neovascularization and stimulate localized or systemic inflammation. It is therefore not surprising that these processes share not only clinical manifestations, but many laboratory features as well.
August 2011 May 2011 February 20112011 - Volume 37
OsteoporosisStuart L. Silverman, MD, Guest Editor
MyopathiesRobert L. Wortmann, MD, MACR, Guest Editor
Complementary and Alternative Medicine in RheumatologySharon L. Kolasinski, MD, Guest Editor
