Paraneoplastic myelopathy (Q84140)

Paraneoplastic myelopathy results from a targeted attack on the central nervous system as a consequence of a potentially effective tumour immune response initiated by onco-neural antigens derived from a systemic cancer. The myelopathy may occur in isolation or as a component of a multifocal neurological disease. Patients typically present with a subacute progressive myelopathy prior to cancer detection. Tract-specific MRI abnormalities are characteristic but not always present. Spinal fluid is usually inflammatory. The autoantibody profile in the serum or cerebrospinal fluid predicts the cancer type (see Paraneoplastic myelopathy: neural autoantibody positive definition). Associated neural autoantibodies include: Amphiphysin; ANNA-1(anti-Hu) (antineuronal nuclear autoantibody type 1); ANNA-2(anti-Ri) (antineuronal nuclear autoantibody type 2); AQP4-IgG (aquaporin-4 autoantibodies); CRMP5(anti-CV2) (collapsin response mediator protein 5); Ma-1; Ma-2; PCA-1(anti-Yo) (antibodies, purkinje cell cytoplasmic autoantibody type 1); PCA-2 (antibodies, purkinje cell cytoplasmic autoantibody type 2);