Paraneoplastic Neurologic Disorders (Volume 200) (Handbook of Clinical Neurology, Volume 200) - Hardcover

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

- Head, Department of Neurology, Azienda Provinciale per I Servizi Sanitari (APSS) and University of Trento - Santa Chiara Hospital - 33100 TRENTO
- Coordinator of a European Commission project on Paraneoplastic Neurological Syndromes (Concerted Action –PNS EURONETWORK – Fifth Framework Programme QLG1-CT-2002-01756).
- Coordinator of a Specific Support Action of the European Commission on Paraneoplastic Neurological Syndromes (Sixth Framework Programme LSSM-CT-2005-518174).
- Former Vice President of the Italian Neurological Society (SIN)

Sean Pittock, M.D., is a consultant in the Department of Neurology and has a joint appointment in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology. He holds the academic rank of professor of neurology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine. He currently serves as director of the Neuroimmunology Laboratory and is the Marilyn A. Park and Moon S. Park, M.D., Director of the Center for Multiple Sclerosis and Autoimmune Neurology. He joined the staff of Mayo Clinic in 2005.

Dr. Pittock’s research and clinical interests include autoimmune neurological disorders, paraneoplastic diseases, neuromyelitis optica and multiple sclerosis. His research focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of multiple sclerosis and autoimmune disorders that target the central and peripheral nervous systems. He founded the Autoimmune Neurology Clinic at Mayo Clinic in 2006, which has allowed the development of a unique translational practice extending the laboratory's serological findings directly from bench to bedside. He has been involved in cutting edge trials of novel immunotherapies to treat NMO and other autoimmune neurologic diseases. He has been invited to give over 100 presentations on his research and has authored over 275 journal articles, abstracts and other written publications.

He is currently the Chair of the Autoimmune Neurology Special Interest Group at the American Neurological Association and directs the educational program on Neuromyelitis Optica at the American Academy of Neurology.

Dr. Pittock serves on numerous professional societies and associations, including the Minnesota Medical Association and American Academy of Neurology, and is a committee member of the American Neurological Association.

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Paraneoplastic Neurological Disorders extensively reviews paraneoplastic neurological disorders in light of the most recent descriptions of autoantibodies against neuronal cell surface antigens (only partly associated with paraneoplastic disorders) and the introduction of new immuno-oncological drugs that can contribute to causing diseases that are pathogenetically indistinguishable from paraneoplastic syndromes. These two new developments have not been addressed in other volumes available on the market. Section 1 focuses on immunological defense mechanisms against tumors. Besides investigating the pathogenetic mechanisms of these disorders, this section will also explore what the introduction of new drugs used in immune checkpoint inhibitor cancer therapy is teaching us in terms of immunopathogenesis. The second section will present individual syndromes (phenotypical clinical manifestations) of the CNS, PNS, NMJ and muscle. These chapters will, however, be preceded by an epidemiological analysis and a chapter describing the clinical approach to patients with these disorders. Consideration will also be given in specific chapters to general therapeutic strategies and the techniques used to search for diagnostically relevant autoantibodies. Presentation of the individual diseases will be followed by a third section investigating the role of antibody markers, presented in three chapters differentiating cytoplasmic, nuclear and neuronal cell surface reactivities. The innovative component of the final two sections compared to previously published volumes lies in their presentation of the profile of paraneoplastic diseases by tumor type. Special attention will be given to thymoma (involved particularly with novel antibodies against surface antigens), and neuroendocrine tumors, which are as yet comparatively unexplored in the literature. Lastly, a clinical update will be provided on gynecological, hematological and testicular malignancies. The last section will address side effects of the new immuno-oncological drugs increasingly used in cancer therapy. The high number of neurological complications that occur when tumor checkpoints are inhibited against immune defences provides the ideal experimental model for understanding the pathogenesis of these diseases.