Parkinson's Disease Linked With 16 Types of Cancers

A Taiwanese study suggests that Parkinson's disease is linked with 16 different types of cancers.

These findings contradict the results of more than 25 Western studies that state the presence of Parkinsons disease (PD) lowers one's risk to different type of cancers.

Researchers at the National Taiwan University College of Medicine in Taipei went through the medical records of the National Health database that had more than 186,000 particpants between 2004 and 2010. Among them five percent of the participants (62,023) were diagnosed with PD.

"Based on this nationwide study on the association between PD [Parkinson disease] and cancer risk, we conclude that PD is a risk factor for most cancer in Taiwan. In our cohort, only breast, ovarian and thyroid cancers show no association with PD," Pan-Chyr Yang, study leader and professor of medicine in National Taiwan University College of Medicine.

During the study, the researchers observed that their findings were contradictory to those of their western counterparts. The found that PD has a link with 16 types of cancers which include lymphoma/leukemia, urinary tract cancers, melanoma, certain hormone-related cancers, lung cancers, gastrointestinal tracts cancers, malignant brain tumors and some skin cancers.

The team feels that they have to carry out their studies in other Asian countries as well.

"The striking differences between our study and the previous studies in Western cohorts suggest the importance of ethnicity and environmental exposures in disease pathogenesis," Yang concluded