SYSTEMIC AND ANTINEURONAL AUTOANTIBODIES IN PATIENTS WITH PARANEOPLASTIC NEUROLOGICAL DISEASE

Sera from 23 patients with paraneoplastic disease of the central nervo us system (PNS) were examined for the presence of anti-neuronal (anti- Hu, anti-Yo/PCA) and anti-Ri) and systemic auto-antibodies, including antibodies against DNA, centromeres, nRNP, Sm antigen, Scl-70, Ro(SS-A ), La(SS-B), mitochondria, thyroid antigens, parietal calls, brush bor der antigen and rheumatoid factor. As controls, sera from 33 patients with small cell lung cancer, 33 with ovarian cancer and 7 with breast cancer and from 107 aged-matched healthy persons were used. Systemic a uto-antibodies were found in 52% of patients with paraneoplastic neuro logical syndromes compared with only 16% (P = 0.001) in the control gr oup with cancer only and 15% in the group of healthy controls. The rel atively high percentage of systemic auto-antibodies in patients with P NS indicates that there is a genetic susceptibility to the development of auto-immune phenomena. This may provide an explanation fur the rel atively rare occurrence of PNS in patients with cancer.