Skeletal muscular atrophy in malignant tumour diseases: neurogenic or unspecific?

Muscles from patients who had died from malignant tumours were examined with regard to changes in the intramuscular nerve twigs and the axon terminals or the motor end-plates, respectively. Three muscles from each of 120 cases were obtained at autopsy and stained with conventional methods. Nineteen cases with pronounced small-group and sometimes large-group atrophy were selected. Myelin and axon preparations displayed various changes of the small nerve branches and the axon terminals. Their significance for the atrophy frequently observed in the muscles of cancer patients is discussed.