ANTIBODIES OF THE ANTI-YO AND ANTI-RI TYPE IN THE ABSENCE OF PARANEOPLASTIC NEUROLOGICAL SYNDROMES - A LONG-TERM SURVEY OF OVARIAN-CANCER PATIENTS

In recent years several authors have described a close correlation bet ween circulating antineuronal antibodies of different types and the oc currence of paraneoplastic neurological syndromes. Because this has no t been widely accepted, we screened 300 serum samples from 181 ovarian cancer patients for the presence of circulating antineuronal antibodi es by immunofluorescence. The findings were confirmed by immunoblottin g. In 11 patients circulating antineuronal antibodies were detected. I n 4 patients they were classified as anti-Yo and in 7 as anti-Ri, titr es ranging from 1:400 to 1: 204 800. All the patients underwent thorou gh neurological and neurophysiological investigations, with special re gard to paraneoplastic syndrome. None of them had symptoms pointing to a paraneoplastic neurological syndrome, although patients were follow ed up to 2 years after the first examination. Thus the frequency of ci rculating antineuronal antibodies in ovarian cancer patients is higher than the frequency of paraneoplastic syndromes, and antibody positivi ty does not necessarily lead to the appearance of a neurological paran eoplastic syndrome.