FREE NEJM E-TOC    HOME   |   SUBSCRIBE   |   CURRENT ISSUE   |   PAST ISSUES   |   COLLECTIONS   |   Search Term  Advanced Search

Sign in | Get NEJM's E-Mail Table of Contents — Free | Subscribe

Previous Volume 322:1844-1851 June 28, 1990 Number 26 Next

	Add to Personal Archive Add to Citation Manager Notify a Friend E-mail When Cited PubMed Citation

Abstract

Paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration is a rare syndrome that occurs in patients with gynecologic cancer and is characterized by widespread loss of Purkinje cells. To determine whether Purkinje-cell antigens are selectively expressed in the tumors of patients with the syndrome, we examined tumor tissue from 10 patients whose serum contained anti-Purkinje-cell (anti-Yo) antibodies. The origins of the cancers were the breast (five patients), ovary (three), endometrium (one), and fallopian tube (one). We used as controls tumor tissue from 11 patients with ovarian cancer and 10 patients with breast cancer who were neurologically normal. Using immunohistochemical and Western blot analysis, we found that Purkinje-cell antigens were expressed in all the tumors from the 10 patients with paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration but in none of the tumors from the 21 neurologically normal patients. When IgG from patients with paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration was affinity-purified to cerebellar Purkinje-cell antigen, immunohistochemical analysis showed that it reacted specifically with the tumor tissue from those patients. We conclude that in patients with paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration, the anti-Yo antibody results from an immune response to neural antigens expressed by the gynecologic tumors in the patients.

Source Information

Department of Neurology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10021.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Orthmann-Murphy, J. L., Freidin, M., Fischer, E., Scherer, S. S., Abrams, C. K. (2007). Two Distinct Heterotypic Channels Mediate Gap Junction Coupling between Astrocyte and Oligodendrocyte Connexins. J. Neurosci. 27: 13949-13957 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Mathew, R. M., Vandenberghe, R., Garcia-Merino, A., Yamamoto, T., Landolfi, J. C., Rosenfeld, M. R., Rossi, J. E., Thiessen, B., Dropcho, E. J., Dalmau, J. (2007). Orchiectomy for suspected microscopic tumor in patients with anti-Ma2-associated encephalitis. Neurology 68: 900-905 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• de Beukelaar, J. W., Smitt, P. A. S. (2006). Managing paraneoplastic neurological disorders.. The Oncologist 11: 292-305 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Cannistra, S. A. (2004). Cancer of the Ovary. NEJM 351: 2519-2529 [Full Text]  
• Greenlee, J E (2004). Recommended diagnostic criteria for paraneoplastic neurological syndromes. J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 75: 1090-1090 [Full Text]  
• Bataller, L., Wade, D. F., Graus, F., Stacey, H. D., Rosenfeld, M. R., Dalmau, J. (2004). Antibodies to Zic4 in paraneoplastic neurologic disorders and small-cell lung cancer. Neurology 62: 778-782 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Bogdan, C. A., Alexander, A. A., Gorny, M. K., Matute, R., Marjanovic, N., Zolla-Pazner, S., Walden, P. D., Furneaux, H. M., Sidhu, G. S., Jacobson, D. R. (2003). Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia with Prostate Infiltration Mediated by Specific Clonal Membrane-bound IgM. Cancer Res. 63: 2067-2071 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Graus, F., Keime-Guibert, F., Rene, R., Benyahia, B., Ribalta, T., Ascaso, C., Escaramis, G., Delattre, J. Y. (2001). Anti-Hu-associated paraneoplastic encephalomyelitis: analysis of 200 patients. Brain 124: 1138-1148 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Maeda, T., Maeda, A., Maruyama, I., Ogawa, K.-i., Kuroki, Y., Sahara, H., Sato, N., Ohguro, H. (2001). Mechanisms of Photoreceptor Cell Death in Cancer-Associated Retinopathy. IOVS 42: 705-712 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Rojas, I., Graus, F., Keime-Guibert, F., Rene, R., Delattre, J. Y., Ramon, J. M., Dalmau, J., Posner, J. B. (2000). Long-term clinical outcome of paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration and anti-Yo antibodies. Neurology 55: 713-715 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Maeda, A., Ohguro, H., Maeda, T., Wada, I., Sato, N., Kuroki, Y., Nakagawa, T. (2000). Aberrant Expression of Photoreceptor-specific Calcium-binding Protein (Recoverin) in Cancer Cell Lines. Cancer Res. 60: 1914-1920 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Darnell, J. C., Albert, M. L., Darnell, R. B. (2000). cdr2, a Target Antigen of Naturally Occurring Human Tumor Immunity, Is Widely Expressed in Gynecological Tumors. Cancer Res. 60: 2136-2139 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Smitt, P. S., Kinoshita, A., De Leeuw, B., Moll, W., Coesmans, M., Jaarsma, D., Henzen-Logmans, S., Vecht, C., De Zeeuw, C., Sekiyama, N., Nakanishi, S., Shigemoto, R. (2000). Paraneoplastic Cerebellar Ataxia Due to Autoantibodies against a Glutamate Receptor. NEJM 342: 21-27 [Full Text]  
• Voltz, R., Gultekin, S. H., Rosenfeld, M. R., Gerstner, E., Eichen, J., Posner, J. B., Dalmau, J. (1999). A Serologic Marker of Paraneoplastic Limbic and Brain-Stem Encephalitis in Patients with Testicular Cancer. NEJM 340: 1788-1795 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Darnell, R. B. (1999). The Importance of Defining the Paraneoplastic Neurologic Disorders. NEJM 340: 1831-1833 [Full Text]  
• Schulz, P, Arbusow, V, Strupp, M, Dieterich, M, Sautier, W, Brandt, T (1999). Sympathetic contralateral vestibulopathy after unilateral zoster oticus. J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 66: 672-676 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Dalmau, J., Gultekin, S. H., Voltz, R., Hoard, R., DesChamps, T., Balmaceda, C., Batchelor, T., Gerstner, E., Eichen, J., Frennier, J., Posner, J. B., Rosenfeld, M. R. (1999). Ma1, a novel neuron- and testis-specific protein, is recognized by the serum of patients with paraneoplastic neurological disorders. Brain 122: 27-39 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Eder, J. P., Nguyen, P. L. (1997). Case 21-1997- A 67-Year-Old Woman with a Progressive Movement Disorder and a Left-Upper-Quadrant Mass. NEJM 337: 115-122 [Full Text]  
• Bolla, L., Palmer, R. M. (1997). Paraneoplastic Cerebellar Degeneration: Case Report and Literature Review. Arch Intern Med 157: 1258-1262 [Abstract]  
• Corradi, J. P., Yang, C., Darnell, J. C., Dalmau, J., Darnell, R. B. (1997). A Post-Transcriptional Regulatory Mechanism Restricts Expression of the Paraneoplastic Cerebellar Degeneration Antigen cdr2 to Immune Privileged Tissues. J. Neurosci. 17: 1406-1415 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Lennon, V. A., Kryzer, T. J., Griesmann, G. E., O'Suilleabhain, P. E., Windebank, A. J., Woppmann, A., Miljanich, G. P., Lambert, E. H. (1995). Calcium-Channel Antibodies in the Lambert-Eaton Syndrome and Other Paraneoplastic Syndromes. NEJM 332: 1467-1475 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Hida, C., Tsukamoto, T., Awano, H., Yamamoto, T. (1994). Ultrastructural Localization of Anti-Purkinje Cell Antibody--Binding Sites in Paraneoplastic Cerebellar Degeneration. Arch Neurol 51: 555-558 [Abstract]  
• Thirkill, C. E., Keltner, J. L., Tyler, N. K., Roth, A. M. (1993). Antibody Reactions With Retina and Cancer-Associated Antigens in 10 Patients With Cancer-Associated Retinopathy. Arch Ophthalmol 111: 931-937 [Abstract]  
• Thirkill, C. E., Tait, R. C., Tyler, N. K., Roth, A. M., Keltner, J. L. (1993). Intraperitoneal Cultivation of Small-cell Carcinoma Induces Expression of the Retinal Cancer-Associated Retinopathy Antigen. Arch Ophthalmol 111: 974-978 [Abstract]  
• Folli, F., Solimena, M., Cofiell, R., Austoni, M., Tallini, G., Fasseta, G., Bates, D., Cartlidge, N., Bottazzo, G. F., Piccolo, G., De Camilli, P. (1993). Autoantibodies to a 128-kd Synaptic Protein in Three Women with the Stiff-Man Syndrome and Breast Cancer. NEJM 328: 546-551 [Abstract] [Full Text]