Abstract
Paraneoplastic neurological syndromes are rare diseases affecting less than 0,01 % of the cancerous patients. Here, we present a rare case of paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration with anti-Ri antibodies as the presenting manifestation of an occult breast cancer. Our observation emphasizes the importance of the nature of the anti-neuronal antibody and the fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography to make a definitive diagnosis in patients with subactue onset of neurological deficit suggesting paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration.
Highlights
Paraneoplastic neurological syndromes (PNS) can be defined as remote effects of cancer that are not caused by the primitive tumor and its metastasis, or by ischemia, infection, nutritional and metabolic deficiencies, surgery or other cancer treatments (Honnorat & Antoine, 2007)
We present a rare case of paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration with anti-Ri antibodies as the presenting manifestation of an occult breast cancer
Our observation emphasizes the importance of the nature of the anti-neuronal antibody and the fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography to make a definitive diagnosis in patients with subactue onset of neurological deficit suggesting paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration
Summary
Paraneoplastic neurological syndromes (PNS) can be defined as remote effects of cancer that are not caused by the primitive tumor and its metastasis, or by ischemia, infection, nutritional and metabolic deficiencies, surgery or other cancer treatments (Honnorat & Antoine, 2007). PNS are rare diseases affecting less than 0,01 % of the cancerous patients (Darnell & Posner, 2003). The most important PNS include cerebellar degeneration, limbic encephalitis, encephalomyelitis, peripheral neuropathy, retinopathy and opsoclonus-myoclonus (Honnorat & Antoine, 2007; Eseonu, Imtiaz, & Hogben, 2010). We report a 62-year-old patient who presented with a paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration (PCD) with anti-Ri antibodies as the presenting manifestation of an occult breast cancer
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