Guillain Barrè syndrome associated with gastric cancer: paraneoplastic syndrome or immunological disorder?

Guillain Barrè Syndrome is a rare clinical entity classified as an ascending muscle paralysis led by autonomic nervous disfunction due to autoimmune damage of peripheral nerves. Paraneoplastic Guillain Barrè syndrome has been described in association with some kind of tumors (B- cell Lymphoma, small cell lung cancer). We describe the case of a 74 years old woman affected by gastric adenocarcinoma, treated with surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy, who developed simoultaneously skin cancer relapse and severe Guillain Barrè Syndrome. Although the timing of clinical presentation suggests a paraneoplastic origin, other interesting features were present in this patient such as familial and personal anamnesis for autoimmune disease, HCV infection and neurotoxic chemoterapy. According to literature we investigated different pathogenetic ipothesis. According to the poorty of data, further investigations are necessary to establish a relationship between Guillain Barrè syndrome and gastric cancer.