1614Accesses
4Altmetric
Opinion statement
Paraneoplastic brain stem encephalitis can occur as an isolated clinical syndrome or, more often, may be part of a more widespread encephalitis. Different antineuronal autoantibodies, such as anti-Hu, anti-Ri, and anti-Ma2 can be associated with the syndrome, and the most frequent tumors are lung and testicular cancer. Anti-Hu-associated brain stem encephalitis does not normally respond to immunotherapy; the syndrome may stabilize under tumor treatment. Brain stem encephalitis with anti-Ma2 often improves after immunotherapy and/or tumor therapy, whereas only a minority of anti-Ri positive patients respond to immunosuppressants or tumor treatment. The Opsoclonus-myoclonus syndrome (OMS) in children, almost exclusively associated with neuroblastoma, shows a good response to steroids, ACTH, and rituximab, some patients do respond to intravenous immunoglobulins or cyclophosphamide. In adults, OMS is mainly associated with small cell lung cancer or gynecological tumors and only a small part of the patients show improvement after immunotherapy. Earlier diagnosis and treatment seem to be one major problem to improve the prognosis of both, paraneoplastic brain stem encephalitis, and OMS.
This is a preview of subscription content,log in via an institution to check access.
Access this article
Subscribe and save
- Get 10 units per month
- Download Article/Chapter or eBook
- 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
- Cancel anytime
Buy Now
Price includes VAT (Japan)
Instant access to the full article PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References and Recommended Reading
Graus F, Dalmau J. Paraneoplastic neurological syndromes. Curr Opin Neurol. 2012;25(6):795–801.
Graus F, Delattre JY, Antoine JC, et al. Recommended diagnostic criteria for paraneoplastic neurological syndromes. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2004;75(8):1135–40.
Saiz A, Bruna J, Stourac P, et al. Anti-Hu-associated brain stem encephalitis. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2009;80(4):404–7.
Dalmau J, Graus F, Villarejo A, et al. Clinical analysis of anti-Ma2-associated encephalitis. Brain. 2004;127(Pt8):1831–44.
Sutton IJ, Barnett MH, Watson JD, Ell JJ, Dalmau J. Paraneoplastic brain stem encephalitis and anti-Ri antibodies. J Neurol. 2002;249(11):1597–8.
Pittock SJ, Parisi JE, McKeon A, et al. Paraneoplastic jaw dystonia and laryngospasm with antineuronal nuclear autoantibody type 2 (anti-Ri). Arch Neurol. 2010;67(9):1109–15.
Dalmau J, Tuzun E, Wu HY, et al. Paraneoplastic anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor encephalitis associated with ovarian teratoma. Ann Neurol. 2007;61(1):25–36.
Jubelt B, Mihai C, Li TM, Veerapaneni P. Rhombencephalitis/brain stem encephalitis. Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep. 2011;11(6):543–52.
Shahrizaila N, Yuki N. Bickerstaff brain stem encephalitis and Fisher syndrome: anti-GQ1b antibody syndrome. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2012; [Epub ahead of print].
Simon NG, Parratt JD, Barnett MH, et al. Expanding the clinical, radiological and neuropathological phenotype of chronic lymphocytic inflammation with pontine perivascular enhancement responsive to steroids (CLIPPERS). J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2012;83(1):15–22.
Pranzatelli MR. The immunopharmacology of the opsoclonus-myoclonus syndrome. Clin Neuropharmacol. 1996;19(1):1–47.
Luque FA, Furneaux HM, Ferziger R, et al. Anti-Ri: an antibody associated with paraneoplastic opsoclonus and breast cancer. Ann Neurol. 1991;29(3):241–51.
Rudnick E, Khakoo Y, Antunes NL, et al. Opsoclonus-myoclonus-ataxia syndrome in neuroblastoma: clinical outcome and antineuronal antibodies-a report from the Children's Cancer Group Study. Med Pediatr Oncol. 2001;36(6):612–22.
Wong A. An update on opsoclonus. Curr Opin Neurol. 2007;20(1):25–31.
Jensen KB, Dredge BK, Stefani G, et al. Nova-1 regulates neuron-specific alternative splicing and is essential for neuronal viability. Neuron. 2000;25(2):359–71.
Blaes F, Fuhlhuber V, Korfei M, et al. Surface-binding autoantibodies to cerebellar neurons in opsoclonus syndrome. Ann Neurol. 2005;58(2):313–7.
Korfei M, Fuhlhuber V, Schmidt-Woll T, Kaps M, Preissner KT, Blaes F. Functional characterization of autoantibodies from patients with pediatric opsoclonus-myoclonus-syndrome. J Neuroimmunol. 2005;170(1–2):150–7.
Fuhlhuber V, Bick S, Kirsten A, et al. Elevated B-cell activating factor BAFF, but not APRIL, correlates with CSF cerebellar autoantibodies in pediatric opsoclonus-myoclonus syndrome. J Neuroimmunol. 2009;210(1–2):87–91.
Ule J, Jensen KB, Ruggiu M, Mele A, Ule A, Darnell RB. CLIP identifies Nova-regulated RNA networks in the brain. Science. 2003;302(5648):1212–5.
Gambini C, Conte M, Bernini G, et al. Neuroblastic tumors associated with opsoclonus-myoclonus syndrome: histological, immunohistochemical, and molecular features of 15 Italian cases. Virchows Arch. 2003;442(6):555–62.
Raffaghello L, Conte M, De Grandis E, Pistoia V. Immunological mechanisms in opsoclonus-myoclonus associated neuroblastoma. Eur J Paediatr Neurol. 2009;13(3):219–23.
Graus F, Keime-Guibert F, Rene R, et al. Anti-Hu-associated paraneoplastic encephalomyelitis: analysis of 200 patients. Brain. 2001;124(Pt6):1138–48.
Tesseki K, Kataoka H, Terashima M, Kawahara M, Taoka T, Tanaka K, et al. Biphasic paraneoplastic brain stem encephalitis associated with anti-Ri antibody. J Neurooncol. 2010;100(1):141–3.
Tay JK, Miller J, Joshi A, Athey RJ. Anti-Ri-associated paraneoplastic cerebellar and brain stem degenerative syndrome. J R Coll Physicians Edinb. 2012;42(3):221–4.
Titulaer MJ, McCracken L, Gabilondo I, et al. Treatment and prognostic factors for long-term outcome in patients with anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis: an observational cohort study. Lancet Neurol. 2013. doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(12)70310-1.
Ertle F, Behnisch W, Al Mulla NA, et al. Treatment of neuroblastoma-related opsoclonus-myoclonus-ataxia syndrome with high-dose dexamethasone pulses. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2008;50(3):683–7.
Pranzatelli MR, Tate ED, Travelstead AL, et al. Rituximab (anti-CD20) adjunctive therapy for opsoclonus-myoclonus syndrome. J Pediatr Hematol Oncol. 2006;28(9):585–93.
Russo C, Cohn SL, Petruzzi MJ, de Alarcon PA. Long-term neurologic outcome in children with opsoclonus-myoclonus associated with neuroblastoma: a report from the Pediatric Oncology Group. Med Pediatr Oncol. 1997;28(4):284–8.
Bataller L, Graus F, Saiz A, Vilchez JJ. Clinical outcome in adult onset idiopathic or paraneoplastic opsoclonus-myoclonus. Brain. 2001;124(2):437–43.
Dropcho EJ, Kline LB, Riser J. Antineuronal (anti-Ri) antibodies in a patient with steroid-responsive opsoclonus-myoclonus. Neurology. 1993;43(1):207–11.
Sugie H, Sugie Y, Akimoto H, Endo K, Shirai M, Ito M. High-dose i.v. human immunoglobulin in a case with infantile opsoclonus polymyoclonia syndrome. Acta Paediatr. 1992;81(4):371–2.
Wilken B, Baumann M, Bien CG, Hero B, Rostasy K, Hanefeld F. Chronic relapsing opsoclonus-myoclonus syndrome: combination of cyclophosphamide and dexamethasone pulses. Eur J Paediatr Neurol. 2008;12(1):51–5.
Acknowledgment
Dr. Blaes is supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Bl 452/2-3) and the German OMS parents group.
Disclosure
Dr. Blaes has received honoraria for giving lectures from Grifols.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Department of Neurology, Gummersbach Hospital, Wilhelm-Breckow-Allee 20, 51643, Gummersbach, Giessen, Germany
Franz Blaes MD
- Franz Blaes MD
You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
Corresponding author
Correspondence toFranz Blaes MD.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Blaes, F. Paraneoplastic Brain Stem Encephalitis.Curr Treat Options Neurol15, 201–209 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11940-013-0221-1
Published:
Issue Date:
Share this article
Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:
Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.
Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative