Protein kinase Cγ antibodies and paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration

Onconeural antibodies are diagnostic markers for paraneoplastic neurological syndromes and indicate the underlying tumor type. Recently, a new antibody against protein-kinase C gamma (PKC gamma) was detected in a patient with paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration (PCD). We report here a second patient A 70-year-old woman presented with cerebellar ataxia, dysdiadochokinesia, and dysarthria. Her serum showed immunoreactivity against the cytoplasm, dendrites and axons of Purkinje cells in tissue-based screening, later confirmed by immunoblot and phage plaques as anti-PKC gamma. Tumor search revealed an adenocarcinoma of hepatobiliary origin. Detection of PKC gamma antibodies should be considered in PCD and adenocarcinoma without typical onconeural antibodies. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.