Paraneoplastic Cerebellar Degeneration Syndrome

[Calaba]

I'm asking if anyone has know anyone with this OR Miller Fisher Syndrome. What can we expect? Does the cure work? YES I am reading all I can on the topic but it would be lovely to hear first hand that someone actually recovered from this.

[Cherries nightmare]

Paraneoplastic cerebellar degenerations are disorders of the cerebellum, the part of the brain responsible for coordination, which are associated with tumors (neoplasms). They arise when tumors express proteins that are normally found only in neurons, and it is believed that the immune system, in its attempt to kill the tumor, also damages the cerebellum. Only about 1% of all persons thought to have a paraneoplastic syndrome turn out to have antibodies to neurons (Pittock et al).
Although antibodies are occasionally useful for diagnosis, they do not appear to be the cause of the cerebellar damage. Rather, current thought is that "killer T-cells", or cytotoxic CD8+ T lymphocytes, are the most likely mediator of neuronal injury. Often a person who has one particular antibody also has others, suggesting that individual antibodies are not associated with individual conditions (Pittock et al, 2004). Treatments to reduce the antibodies are ineffective, and attempts to reproduce disease by transfer of antibodies into animals have been unsuccessful.
Certain tumors are more commonly associated with antibodies than others. These include cancer of the ovary, uterus or adnexa, cancer of the breast, and especially small cell carcinoma of the lung. The condition frequently begins before the tumor is diagnosed. In children, neuroblastoma is a common cause of opsoclonus, thought to be a paraneoplastic syndrome. I hope this helps some it basically screws with your coordination, if you havent already Id suggest yu get a MRI immediately.

[calichic]

[url]http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1156965-overview[/url]

More reading. This was updated July 13, 2009.

Mortality/Morbidity
In the study cited above, median survival duration was 100 months for patients with breast cancer and 22 months for those with gynecologic cancer. Although paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration led to the diagnosis of cancer in 63% of patients, cancer progression was the cause of death in 52%.9
Seems to be more common in females, although effects both sexes. Also, seems to be cancer related. Prognosis greatly depends on early detection of the underlying neoplasm and its stage at the time of detection.

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Interesting reading material. I hope all works out for whomever you are asking this about. BTW , I know of no one with this condition, sorry cant be more informative .

[Calaba]

Spanks guys but I know all that already, the brilliant Nero doc gave me a ton to read. MRI doesn't show CRAP when it comes to this.
Just trying to find someone that made it through all this, as it stands she's in hospital getting IVIG to get proteins in and checking all the freaking antibodies they can think of....
What damn monkey carried THIS here?