Paraneoplastic cerebellar ataxia and the paraneoplastic syndromes

Paraneoplastic cerebellar ataxia, also known as paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration, is one of the wide array of paraneoplastic neurological syndromes in which neurological symptoms are indirectly caused by an underlying malignancy, most commonly gynecological, breast, or lung cancer or Hodgkin's lymphoma. We describe a patient with severe cerebellar dysfunction attributed to a paraneoplastic neurological syndrome. The case highlights the need to look for paraneoplastic syndromes-both to discover malignancies early, at a treatable stage, and, as in our case, to address very distressing symptoms for the patient's relief even if the malignancy is not curable.