Car syndrome (cancer-associated retinopathy syndrome)  196

General: Rare; antiretinal antibodies in blood of cancer patients experiencing concomitant loss of vision; vision loss may be noted before cancer is diagnosed; mechanisms involved in the vision loss experienced by these patients is not understood, but serologic studies indicate they may include a series of autoimmune reactions directed at specific components of the retina.

Ocular: Vision loss usually progressive; retinal degeneration; retinal hole; abnormal visual fields; loss of color vision; retinal detachment; optic atrophy; ringlike scotoma; night blindness; retinal phlebitis.

Clinical: Carcinoma with or without metastasis to any part of the body.

Keltner JL, et al. Photoreceptor degeneration: possible autoimmune disorder. Arch Ophthalmol 1983; 101:564-569.

Ohnishi Y, et al. Cancer-associated retinopathy with retinal phlebitis. Br J Ophthalmol 1993; 77:795-798.

Thirkill CE, et al. Cancer-associated retinopathy. Arch Ophthalmol 1987; 105:372-375.

Thirkill CE, et al. The cancer-associated retinopathy antigen is a recovering-like protein. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 1992; 33:2768-2772.