LAUSR

70Background: The high mortality rate of ovarian cancer (OVCA) is due to late detection and high incidence of recurrence. Autoantibody diagnostic tests for early detection and prediction of recurrence have the potential to improve patient outcome. Paraneoplastic neurological syndromes (PNSs) are rare disorders due to remote effects of the immune response against a tumor, targeting both the tumor and healthy tissues such as muscle, brain, and nervous system. Symptoms of PNSs generally precede detection of a tumor; therefore paraneoplastic antibodies are a logical resource for the early detection of cancer. Two PNSs associated with OVCA are myositis and paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration (PCD), which target muscle and purkinje cells, respectively. Our laboratory has detected the presence of several myositis and PCD associated paraneoplastic antibodies in the sera of patients with OVCA. Methods: Incubation of OVCA patient sera with commercially available paraneoplastic diagnostic line blots indicated pre...