Immunity Against Cancers Misfires, Which Is Rare

choi

(Most of the time, the immunity does not seem to battle cancers. So the misfiring problem does not occur.)


Lisa Sanders, The Tractor's Pull. His legs were suddenly behaving as if they had forgotten what to do, and his eyes were seeing double. Could he be having a stroke?  New York Times Magazine, Feb 20, 2022.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/ ... cell-carcinoma.html

Note:
(a) "At the LincolnHealth-Miles Campus Hospital in nearby Damariscotta, it was clear to the ER doctors that the patient wasn't weak but ataxic, lacking not strength but coordination. Virtually every movement the body makes requires several muscles working together — a collaboration that occurs in the cerebellum. * * * There was another hospital, a larger one a couple of towns over in Brunswick: Mid Coast Hospital. * * * He couldn't walk, the older man [older than the doctor] told Dr Roople Unia, the neurologist"
(i)
(A) Damariscotta, Maine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damariscotta,_Maine  
("a town in Lincoln County * * * The population was 2,297 at the 2020 census. The name Damariscotta is an Indian name meaning 'river of little fish' ")Part of MaineHealth, a not-for-profit, LincolnHealth has two campuses: Miles Campus ("a 25-bed community hospital" at Damariscotta) and St Andrew Campus (at Boothbay Harbor)
(B) Damariscotta, Maine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damariscotta,_Maine  
("a town in Lincoln County * * * The population was 2,297 at the 2020 census. The name Damariscotta is an Indian name meaning 'river of little fish' ")
(ii) The adjective ataxic has a corresponding noun ataxia. English borrowed from Ancient Greek of the same spelling, meaning "disorder" -- from from a- without + [noun feminine] taxis order: per Lexico.com.
(iii) Brunswick, Maine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunswick,_Maine
("a town in Cumberland County * * * The population was 21,756 at the 2020 United States Census. * * * is home to Bowdoin College)
is about 20-nile air distance northeast of Portland, Maine (the most populous city in Maine; 2020 population: 68k; was named after the isle off the coast of Dorset, England).
(iv) Roople UNIA
https://www.midcoasthealth.com/doctors/print-doctor/?doctorID=564
("Medical School: Jagiellonian University Medical College, Krakow, PL [Poland]
Residency: University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY
Board Certified: Neurology and Vascular Neurology")


(b) "Unia suspected that his swallow was as uncoordinated as his walk. The esophagus (the swallowing tube) is right next to ]behind] the trachea (the breathing tube). Normally the epiglottis, a leaf-shaped flap located at the base of the throat, folds over the trachea as we swallow to prevent the food meant for the esophagus from going down the wrong tube."

A cartilage, the epiglottis 会厌 is epi- atop + glottis the opening between the vocal folds (in the middle of larynx).

(c) "Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) * * * is also an autoimmune disorder, usually triggered by an infection. Antibodies created to fight the infection mistakenly attack the nerves that control movement, usually starting with the legs and ascending up the body. * * * Unia ordered the blood test that looks for this version [Miller Fisher variant] of GBS. But the results could take weeks."
(i) This patient did not suffer from GBS. So you need not learn more than is necessary.
(ii) "The syndrome is named after the French neurologists Georges Guillain and Jean Alexandre Barré, who, together with French physician André Strohl, described the condition in 1916."  en.wikipedia.org for GBS.
(iii) Thy P Nguyen and Roger S Taylor, Guillain Barre Syndrome. StatPearls, last updated on July 10, 2021
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK532254/
("Antecedent infections are reported in up to 70% of patients with Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS). * * * Miller-Fisher syndrome's association with anti-GQ1B antibodies * * * Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) patients describe a fulminant course of symptoms that usually include ascending [change in sensation: numbness, tingling, or pain] weakness and non-length dependent sensory symptoms. By definition, the nadir is usually reached within 4 weeks. Symmetric involvement is a key feature of GBS")
(A) The distinguishing feature is ascending (from feet up), and symmetrical, as if the patient is walking into a body of water little by little.
(B) GQ1b is a kind of ganglioside. That is all you need to know.


(d) "Some of these autoimmune diseases are associated with cancers. These paraneoplastic syndromes, as they are called, are a rare consequence of the immune system's attacking cancer but can cause devastating injuries to the nervous system as well as other parts of the body. * * * Mayo Clinic, where the neuroimmunology lab looks for evidence of any of a dozen paraneoplastic syndromes. They were all negative. * * * The next day [hospitalist Dmitry] Opolinsky got a text to call a number he didn't recognize[:] Dr Andrew Mc​Keon, co-director of the Mayo Clinic lab. * * * There was a newly discovered antibody identified a couple of years earlier by McKeon's lab * * * This patient had a very strong positive result for this antibody, which attacks something known as neuronal intermediate filaments in the brain. 'If he's a smoker,' McKeon predicted, 'then he has small-cell lung cancer. If he's not, he probably has Merkel cell skin cancer.' "
(i)
(A) Andrew McKeon, M.B., B.Ch., M.D. Mayo Clinic, undated
https://www.mayoclinic.org/biogr ... ch-m-d/bio-20055240
("is originally from Dublin. He obtained his medical degree from University College Dublin (2000). ** * He is co-director of the Neuroimmunology Laboratory. He is a professor of neurology and associate professor of laboratory medicine and pathology in Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science. He is certified by the American Board of Medical Laboratory Immunology")
(B) Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachelor_of_Medicine,_Bachelor_of_Surgery
(Latin: Medicinae Baccalaureus, Baccalaureus Chirurgiae; "is the primary medical degree awarded by medical schools in countries that follow the tradition of the United Kingdom" that is equivalent to MD in US)

In UK and Republic of Ireland, it takes six years, after high school, to obtain the medical degree.
(C) Latin-English dictionary:
* Chirurgia (noun feminine; from Ancient Greek): "a surgery"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chirurgia
(ii) Intermediate Filaments. In Geoffrey M Cooper, The Cell; A molecular approach. 2nd ed. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates (publisher), 2000.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK9834/

The intermediate filaments are in all sorts of cells, acting like pillars (or columns) of a building. Neuronal intermediate filaments are those in neurons.
(iii) Andrew McKeon et al, Neuronal intermediate filament IgGs in CSF: Autoimmune Axonopathy Biomarkers. Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology, 8: 425 (February 2021).
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33369283/
(A) application (adj): "denoting or relating to basic research that is converted into practical, especially medical, applications"
https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/translational
(B) IgG = immunoglobulin G; IgGs is the plural, denoting various IgG.
(iv) underarm (n): "armpit"
https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/underarm