Paraneoplastic limbic encephalitis- forgotten etiology of altered sensorium

Paraneoplastic limbic encephalitis (PLE) is a rare disorder characterized by minor personality changes, irritability, depression, seizures, memory loss to frank altered sensorium. The diagnosis is difficult because clinical markers are often lacking, and symptoms usually precede the diagnosis of cancer or mimic other complications. The common causes of altered sensorium normally considered include infections, metabolic derangements, dyselectrolytemias, stroke, seizure, encephalitis etc. An oncological cause of altered sensorium is generally lower among the differentials. In absence of any overt signs of malignancy and probably due to less exposure to these cases, they generally get missed. Cancers primarily associated with limbic encephalitis are SCLC, breast cancer, thymomas, testicular malignancies, hodgkins and non hodgkins lymphoma. There have been reported cases for limbic encephalitis associated with adenocarcinoma of colon but not with adenocarcinoma of gastro esophageal junction. Our case of limbic encephalitis associated with adenocarcinoma of gastro esophageal junction is a rare entity and hence it isour endeavor to bring forth   this case.