Background Paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration is usually associated with gynecological and breast cancer, lung cancer, and Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Renal cell carcinoma has rarely been described as an underlying malignancy in these cases. Case presentation We report the case of a 75 year-old woman who develop cerebellar ataxia following a respiratory viral infection. During investigation, around 1 year afterward, she noticed constitutional symptoms suggestive of malignancy. Renal carcinoma was found and the hypothesis of paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration was considered. Conclusions As no specific antineuronal antibodies have been described in the setting of renal cell carcinoma, paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration should be considered when the tumor is detected and other causes are excluded. Immunotherapy should be prescribed as soon as possible.

The recently published article "Taste and Smell Dysfunction in COVID-19 Patients" 1 reported a study with 131 patients with impairment of taste and smell after COVID-19 infection. We herein report 2 cases of health care workers, without previous history of smell disorders, presenting isolated phantosmia (distorted perception of smell without a trigger) and parosmia (distorted perception of smell triggered by an odor) associated with parageusia (distorted taste triggered by a taste). 2 A 45-year-old male nurse, with a previous history of hypertension, on perindopril and amlodipine, developed headache, dry cough, fever, rhinorrhea and nasal congestion for 3 days. In spite of nasal symptoms improvement, within 2 days he noticed an unpleasant sense of smell. He described it as a cigarette smoke that appeared without an existing trigger. Phantosmia lasted for 10 days, and it was followed by loss of smell for approximately 21 days. He denied any associated taste abnormalities.A 33-year-old female nurse, without previous comorbidities, developed myalgia and headache, without rhinorrhea or nasal obstruction. Seven days after symptoms onset, she noticed a distressing smell triggered by perfume and coffee. At the same time, she described a distortion of sweet and bitter tastes, which altered her appetite. In this case, olfactory and gustatory dysfunction were present simultaneously, but while parosmia lasted for 5 days, parageusia persisted for 10 days.In both health care workers, first clinical assessment and follow-up evaluations were obtained by remote consultation, therefore smell testing could not be performed. COVID-19 infection was confirmed by reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) after nasopharyngeal swab performed on the first case and by a IgG/ IgM rapid antibody test on the second case. They both developed a mild disease course. On the 90-day follow up, they reported complete spontaneous recovery of smell and taste dysfunctions.Up to 55% of 131 patients in the article we are replying to reported taste disorder and anosmia. 1 With the cases 964836A ORXXX10.