Hello, I am afraid I don t agree with what you have been told. Cerebellar atrophy doesn t cause cancer. Cerebellar atrophy can t even be called a condition, it is simply a descriptive Latin term meaning shrinking of the little brain, doesn t indicate the origin, may be in the setting of different causes with different mechanisms. I think what the doctors must have meant is the other way round, that it is the colon cancer which has caused the cerebellar atrophy. It is known for cancer to cause Paraneoplastic syndromes in other organs, meaning affecting other organs in distance without the cancer having spread there. Cerebellar atrophy or degeneration is a well know neurological paraneoplastic syndrome. It is as a result of the body s immune system reacting to the cancer cells creating abnormal antibodies and an abnormal immune response which affects the cerebellum, even in the absence of as direct spread of the cancer there. It may start well before the tumor is diagnosed, even years, when there are malignant cells triggering the immune response but the tumor is not yet big enough to be detected. So it is the cancer which has caused the cerebellar atrophy. Of course you should discuss with your doctors again as I don t have your reports. Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further. Regards, Dr. Olsi Taka, Neurologist