Prevalence+Significance of Paraneoplastic Autoantibodies in Many Cancers

You may have a type of cancer associated with "antineuronal antibodies" in your blood. Antibodies are substances made by the immune system. They are used by the body to fight infections and other diseases. Antineuronal antibodies are antibodies that react with nerve cells but they also react with some tumors. We believe that the immune system makes these antibodies to fight the cancer. In some patients with these antibodies, the tumor is smaller than in patients who have no antibodies. Sometimes, with a very strong antibody test, patients may develop neurologic problems such as weakness, numbness or memory loss. One purpose of this study is to determine if a patient with cancer and a positive antineuronal antibody blood test has a smaller tumor and responds better to treatment than a patient with cancer and a negative test. Another purpose of this study is to determine whether patients with a positive antibody test develop neurologic problems such as weakness, numbness or memory loss. We will measure your blood for several different kinds of antibodies in addition to antineuronal antibodies to determine if the presence of antibodies predicts "prognosis", i.e. smaller tumor and better response to treatment, or predicts the development of neurologic problems. No tissue samples are required for this study. However, if tissue or sputum is obtained by your oncologist for diagnostic purposes, we will ask your doctors or the pathology department to provide us with samples of these specimens. This will not involve any additional surgery or discomfort to you.