Long-term clinical outcome of paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration and anti-Yo antibodies

The outcome of 34 women with anti-Yo-associated paraneoplastic cerebellar d egeneration was reviewed. Three patients had not developed cancer after mor e than 4 years of follow-up. The only independent predictor for survival wa s the type of associated tumor (risk ratio, 1.79; 95% CI, 1.02 to 3.12). Me dian survival was 100 months for patients with breast cancer sind 22 for th ose with gynecologic cancer. Although paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneratio n leads to the diagnosis of cancer in 63% of the patients, cancer progressi on was the cause of death in 52%.