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Prospective case–control study of nonfatal cancer preceding the diagnosis of parkinson’s disease

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Abstract

Objective

Prior studies suggest a decreased frequency of cancer in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). We conducted a nested case–control study to estimate the association between the diagnosis of PD and a history of preceding cancer.

Methods

Our case–control study was nested within a prospective cohort of 22,071 US male physicians. During 22 years of follow-up, 487 incident cases of PD were identified and matched by age to 487 controls. We then evaluated a history of cancer prior to the index date that was confirmed by medical record review.

Results

The frequency of any cancer was less in cases (13.1%) than in controls (14.8%). There was an inverse relationship between overall cancer (odds ratio [OR] = 0.83; 95% CI, 0.57–1.21), smoking-related (OR = 0.74; 95% CI, 0.35–1.57), and non-smoking-related cancer (OR = 0.88; 95% CI, 0.59–1.32) and the subsequent development of PD. Smoking significantly modified the relationship between PD and smoking-related cancer (p interaction = 0.002). PD cases who smoked had an OR of 0.32 (95% CI, 0.11–0.89) for smoking-related cancer. In contrast, PD cases who never smoked had an OR of 6.85 (95% CI, 0.83–56.39).

Conclusions

Our data suggest that the frequency of cancer preceding the diagnosis of PD is decreased. Smoking status prior to PD or cancer diagnosis significantly modified the association between smoking-related cancer and PD.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the staff of the Physician’s Health Study and to the 22,071 dedicated physicians who have made this project possible.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Aging, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 1620 Tremont Street, Boston, MA, 02120-1613, USA

    Jane A. Driver, Tobias Kurth, Julie E. Buring, J. Michael Gaziano & Giancarlo Logroscino

  2. Division of Preventive Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Tobias Kurth, Julie E. Buring & J. Michael Gaziano

  3. Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Tobias Kurth, Julie E. Buring & Giancarlo Logroscino

  4. Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Julie E. Buring

  5. Massachusetts Veterans Epidemiology Research and Information Center, Boston, MA, USA

    J. Michael Gaziano

Authors
  1. Jane A. Driver
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  2. Tobias Kurth
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  3. Julie E. Buring
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  4. J. Michael Gaziano
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  5. Giancarlo Logroscino
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tobias Kurth.

Additional information

This study was supported by grants CA 34944 and CA 40360 from the National Cancer Institute, and grants HL-26490 and HL-34595 from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Bethesda MD.

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Driver, J.A., Kurth, T., Buring, J.E. et al. Prospective case–control study of nonfatal cancer preceding the diagnosis of parkinson’s disease. Cancer Causes Control 18, 705–711 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-007-9005-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-007-9005-9

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