Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Jan 1;179(1):85-94.
doi: 10.1093/aje/kwt232. Epub 2013 Oct 18.

Parkinson's disease and cancer: A register-based family study

Karin Wirdefeldt, Caroline E Weibull, Honglei Chen, Freya Kamel, Cecilia Lundholm, Fang Fang, Weimin Ye

Parkinson's disease and cancer: A register-based family study

Karin Wirdefeldt et al. Am J Epidemiol. .

Abstract

We wanted to compare cancer incidence rates between Parkinson's disease (PD) patients and persons without PD, as well as between siblings of these groups. We conducted a family-based matched cohort study based on nationwide Swedish health registries and the Swedish Multi-Generation Register. We assessed risk of incident cancer in PD patients (n = 11,786) during 1964-2009 versus a matched cohort of PD-free individuals (n = 58,930) and in siblings of PD patients (n = 16,841) versus siblings of PD-free individuals (n = 84,205). Hazard ratios with 95% confidence intervals were estimated using Cox proportional hazards regression. Cancer occurrence was slightly higher in PD patients than in PD-free individuals (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.05, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.00, 1.10), largely because of cancers arising within 1 year before or after the index date for PD, but risk of smoking-related cancers was lower (HR = 0.87, 95% CI: 0.79, 0.96). PD patients had a higher risk of melanoma both up to 1 year before the PD index date (HR = 1.53, 95% CI: 1.23, 1.91) and from 1 year after the index date onward (HR = 1.46, 95% CI: 1.01, 2.10). In the sibling comparison, cancer occurrence was largely similar. These results indicate that melanoma risk is higher among PD patients and that mechanisms other than familial ones explain the association.

Keywords: Parkinson's disease; cancer; cohort studies; hazard ratio; siblings.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Selection of the study population and matched sets used for analyses of incident cancer in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients versus PD-free individuals and siblings of PD patients versus siblings of PD-free individuals. The study population included persons listed in the Swedish Multi-Generation Register who were born between January 1, 1932, and December 31, 1991. Persons who immigrated to Sweden after December 31, 1957, were excluded.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Time periods for incident cancer considered in analyses of Parkinson's disease (PD) and cancer risk, Sweden, 1964–2009. Time window 1 ranged from baseline to 1 year prior to the index date for PD. Time window 2 ranged from 1 year before the PD index date to 1 year after the index date. Time window 3 was 1 year after the PD index date onward.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Wirdefeldt K, Adami HO, Cole P, et al. Epidemiology and etiology of Parkinson's disease: a review of the evidence. Eur J Epidemiol. 2011;26(suppl 1):S1–S58. - PubMed
    1. Bajaj A, Driver JA, Schernhammer ES. Parkinson's disease and cancer risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Cancer Causes Control. 2010;21(5):697–707. - PubMed
    1. Liu R, Gao X, Lu Y, et al. Meta-analysis of the relationship between Parkinson disease and melanoma. Neurology. 2011;76(23):2002–2009. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Inzelberg R, Jankovic J. Are Parkinson disease patients protected from some but not all cancers? Neurology. 2007;69(15):1542–1550. - PubMed
    1. Herrero Hernandez E. Pigmentation genes link Parkinson's disease to melanoma, opening a window on both etiologies. Med Hypotheses. 2009;72(3):280–284. - PubMed

Publication types