Paraneoplastic myopathy in pancreatic cancer: a case report and literature review

Dermatomyositis (DM) and polymyositis (PM) are both immune-mediated inflammatory myopathies known to occur in paraneoplastic syndromes associated with a new diagnosis of malignancy, most commonly breast, ovarian, lung, pancreatic, stomach, colorectal, and Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma1 in DM and breast, lung, bladder cancer, and Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in PM. 2,3,4 While inflammatory markers such as creatine kinase (CK) may be elevated with either DM or PM, marked elevation is rare. Herein, we report a case of newly diagnosed pancreatic cancer presenting with inflammatory myopathy and marked CK elevation. We review the frequency of PM as a paraneoplastic syndrome, the association with marked CK elevation, and the association with pancreatic cancer.