Rheumatology is a domain of medicine where diagnostic procedures should be very accurate in order to exclude an oncological disease. In both domains clinical manifestations are similar. In both diseases it is possible to observe pain of joints or muscles, fever, weight loss, skin changes, and abnormal laboratory tests. Special attention should be paid to presence of atypical rheumatic features with a violent onset. Sometimes these symptoms are a rheumatic mask which precedes the diagnosis of malignancy. In such a case, a key issue is to recognize paraneoplastic features of the musculoskeletal system as early as possible. The treatment of malignant neoplasm may cause a withdrawal of rheumatic symptoms.
This study presents three cases of rheumatic mask of malignancy.