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
. 2016 Oct:31:28-33.
doi: 10.1016/j.parkreldis.2016.06.014. Epub 2016 Jun 20.

Cancer in Parkinson's disease

Pawel Tacik  1 , Sadie Curry  2 , Shinsuke Fujioka  3 , Audrey Strongosky  4 , Ryan J Uitti  5 , Jay A van Gerpen  6 , Nancy N Diehl  7 , Michael G Heckman  8 , Zbigniew K Wszolek  9
Affiliations

Cancer in Parkinson's disease

Pawel Tacik et al. Parkinsonism Relat Disord. 2016 Oct.

Abstract

Introduction: We examined the prevalence of cancer in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and controls evaluated at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, between 2003 and 2014.

Methods: We retrospectively collected information regarding cancer diagnoses and diagnosis of PD from 971 unrelated PD patients and 478 controls, and all were white. For PD patients, we examined cancers diagnosed before and after PD diagnosis separately in addition to considering all cancer diagnoses.

Results: Twenty different cancers were identified. In PD patients, the most common types of cancer were skin cancer (17.3% overall; 10.6% before PD), followed by nonmelanoma skin cancer (16.0% overall; 9.7% before PD), prostate cancer in men (12.8% overall; 9.2% before PD), breast cancer in women (10.6% overall; 6.3% before PD), and melanoma (2.4% overall; 1.1% before PD). Compared to controls, a significantly lower frequency of nonmelanoma skin cancer (odds ratio [OR]: 0.62, P = 0.0024) and any skin cancer (OR: 0.57, P = 0.0002) was observed in PD patients. These differences were greater when considering only cases with cancers that occurred before PD diagnosis (OR: 0.49, P < 0.0001; OR: 0.45, P < 0.0001, respectively), and there was a lower frequency of melanoma and any cancer preceding PD diagnosis compared to controls (OR: 0.31, P = 0.003; OR: 0.36, P < 0.0001). There was no evidence of a frequency difference for any other cancer.

Conclusions: PD patients had a lower frequency of skin cancers or any cancer prior to PD diagnosis compared to controls, suggesting that cancer may have a protective effect on PD risk.

Keywords: Basal ganglia; Cancer; Melanoma; Parkinsonism; Parkinson’s disease; Primary brain tumor.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Financial Disclosure/Conflict of Interest: Pawel Tacik, MD: Jaye F. and Betty F. Dyer Foundation Fellowship, Max Kade Foundation postdoctoral fellowship, Allergan Medical Education grant Sadie Curry: nothing to disclose Shinsuke Fujioka, MD: gift from Carl Edward Bolch, Jr. and Susan Bass Bolch Foundation Audrey Strongosky, BS: NIH P50 NS072187 Ryan J. Uitti, MD: NINDS P50 NS072187 Jay A. van Gerpen, MD: NINDS P50 NS072187 Nancy N. Diehl, BS: nothing to disclose Michael G. Heckman, MS: nothing to disclose Zbigniew K. Wszolek, MD: NIH P50 NS072187, Mayo Clinic Neuroscience Focused Research Team and Cecilia and Dan Carmichael Family Foundation. There are no conflicts of interest.

Comment in

  • Comment on: "Cancer in Parkinson's disease".
    Nozile WR, Nozile-Firth K, Martinez-Ramirez D, Longo MI. Nozile WR, et al. Parkinsonism Relat Disord. 2018 Aug;53:115. doi: 10.1016/j.parkreldis.2018.05.004. Epub 2018 May 16. Parkinsonism Relat Disord. 2018. PMID: 29784562 No abstract available.

References

    1. Bajaj A, Driver JA, Schernhammer ES. Parkinson’s disease and cancer risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Cancer Causes & Control. 2010;21:697–707. - PubMed
    1. Baade D, Fritschi L, Freedman DM. Mortality due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease among melanoma patients. Neuroepidemiology. 2007;28:16–20. - PubMed
    1. Becker C, Brobert GP, Johansson S, Jick SS, Meier CR. Cancer risk in association with Parkinson disease: A population-based study. Parkinsonism & related disorders. 2010;16:186–190. - PubMed
    1. Bertoni JM, Arlette JP, Fernandez HH, Fitzer-Attas C, Frei K, Hassan MN, Isaacson SH, Lew MF, Molho E, Ondo WG, Phillips TJ, Singer C, Sutton JP, Wolf JE., Jr Increased melanoma risk in Parkinson disease: a prospective clinicopathological study. Archives of Neurology. 2010;67:347–352. - PubMed
    1. Constantinescu R, Elm J, Auinger P, Sharma S, Augustine EF, Khadim L, Kieburtz K N-P Investigators. Malignant melanoma in early-treated Parkinson’s disease: The NET-PD trial. Movement Disorders. 2014;29:263–265. - PMC - PubMed