Horners Syndrom

[meschell]

My daughter who is 17 was born with Horners Syndrom at the time they told us she had a paralyzed nerve in her neck and had a CAT scan ran.  However, my husband and his whole family have all passed away with each member having a different type of cancer.  Is there anything I need to look for in my daughter or is there any test I should have ran to make sure she is ok.  

[meschell]

Ok, thanks as a matter of fact she has had some headaches over the last couple of years but she studies a lot and of course has an active social life as any 17 year old would.  I wil have this checked out but what type of neurologist should I take her to?  

[JainMD]

Hi,
Horner syndrome is caused by interruptions of the sympathetic nerve supply to the eye and results in miosis, ptosis, enophthalmos (sometimes), and absence of sweating of the ipsilateral face and neck.
The common associated risk is Apical bronchogenic carcinoma (Pancoast tumor), Aneurysm of the carotid or subclavian artery, Injuries to the carotid artery high in the neck, and Cluster headaches among others.
I think your description of cancer lesion in your family is wide and there is no particular lesion which is dominant.
I think you can keep a watch on her and any symptoms which are suggestive of any tumor growth get it thoroughly evaluated.
Keep me informed.
Bye.

[meschell]

No, I do not know this was diagnosed when she was a baby actually 2 weeks old.  They told me it was possibly a tumour on her spinal cord however after they ran a CT Scan they then told me it was a paralyzed nerve and there were no masses of any type.  The only other thing which may have something to do with her problem was while I was pregnant with her during my 5th month my step son came around me with Chicken Pox and since I had never had them of course I contracted the virus.  She is now 17 years old and seems very healthy.  The doctors told me when we first had this diagnosed not to worry about it.  She has the typical symptoms of half of her face turning red the other not, sweating on only one side, and one hand bigger than the other and of course one eye has better vision than the other and the droppy eyelid and one pupil smaller than the other.  As far as the malignancy which runs in the family, A great aunt died of brain cancer, there has been lymphomia with her grandmother, lukemia with her grandfather, bone and liver cancer with her aunt and her dad died of lung cancer.  I believe her grand parents on her fathers side had some type of cancer however there is no family members left to ask about it.  Any help or guidelines would be greatly appreciated.

[JainMD]

Hi,
You want to know whether Horner's syndrome is associated with any cancer or malignancy.
Do you know whether your daughter has pre-ganglionic or post-ganglionic Horner syndrome?
There is association of malignancy with pre-ganglionic Horner syndrome and recently diagnosed pre-ganglionic Horner syndrome is more prone for malignancy.
Can you tell us what malignancy runs in family?
Keep me informed.
Bye.