Foreword

Article Outline

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Few clinical scenarios of cancer carry the horrific ramifications of leptomeningeal carcinomatosis. Not only has the disease spread to arguably the most critical of sites, but therapy is difficult to administer and results are suboptimal. The constellation of possible symptoms referable to leptomeningeal carcinomatosis is uniquely variable and unpredictable: unilteral or bilateral, motor or senory deficits, cranial nerve, spinal, or peripheral nerve root dysfunction. In this issue of Current Problems in Cancer, Dr. O’Meara and colleagues from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center have provided a valuable update of the topic. Infrequently seen it may be, but we as Oncologists must be rapid in our diagnosis and treatment when our patients present with seemingly unrelated symptoms in disparate levels of the neuraxis.