Open AccessA 54-Year-Old Woman with Progressive Ataxia
Author(s) -
Kun Huang,
Robin Parker Md Frcpc,
Tabassum Firoz Md Frcpc
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
canadian journal of general internal medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2369-1778
pISSN - 1911-1606
DOI - 10.22374/cjgim.v11i3.155
Subject(s) - medicine , paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration , malignancy , ovarian cancer , occult , serous fluid , ataxia , pathology , cerebellar ataxia , autoantibody , neurology , cancer , antibody , immunology , alternative medicine , psychiatry
Paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration (PCD) is a rare but devastating syndrome associated with autoantibodies targeting cerebellar antigens expressed by tumours outside of nervous system. PCD is most often associated with breast and gynecological cancers and can precede clinical manifestations of the cancer. Of the dozen autoantibodies associated with PCD, anti-Yo is the most commonly identified. In this report, we present a case of a woman with progressive cerebellar ataxia and anti-Yo antibody, who has microscopic high-grade serous carcinoma found with empiric total abdominal hysterectomy bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (TAH-BSO). This case highlights the challenges in diagnosis, difficulty in identifying the occult malignancy, and the need for multidisciplinary collaboration between Internal Medicine, Neurology, Gynecology and Pathology. The literature relating to diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of PCD is also reviewed.