DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS IN NEURO-ONCOLOGY

DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS IN NEURO‐ONCOLOGY By Jerzy Hildebrand and Michael Brada 2001. Oxford: Oxford University Press Price £59.50. pp. 310. ISBN 0192632132Neuro‐oncology is a Cinderella speciality in British neurology yet almost every neurologist will be asked to see patients with neurological complications of cancer and with primary and secondary brain tumours. The importance of an early and accurate diagnosis cannot be overstated particularly as most neurological lesions in cancer patients are rapidly progressive and potentially life threatening. One in five patients with metastatic cancer develop neurological complications and although the majority of neurological problems are a direct consequence of metastasis or metabolic derangement, the diagnostic considerations need to include treatment‐related complications and paraneoplastic syndromes. Knowledge of these additional differentials is therefore essential and yet there is no easy reference guide for the jobbing neurologist apart from …