Original research articleParkinson's disease and risk of prostate cancer: A Danish population-based case-control study, 1995-2010

- Prostate cancer (PCa) growth and progression may be linked to neurogenesis.
- Drugs targeting the autonomic nervous system could provide therapeutic benefit of PCa.
- This study shows that Parkinsons disease patients have a reduced risk of PCa.
- This risk reduction increases with increasing duration of Parkinson's disease.
- Future studies are needed to examine specific treatments for Parkinson's disease and PCa risk.

IntroductionProstate cancer growth and progression may be linked to neurogenesis and to medical anti- Parkinson treatment, but results are inconclusive. Therefore, we examined the association between Parkinson's disease and risk of prostate cancer in a population based case-control study.MethodsWe identified 45,429 patients diagnosed with incident prostate cancer during 1997-2010 from the National Cancer Registry. Five age-matched population controls (n = 227,145) were selected for each case. Odds ratios (ORs) adjusted for age and comorbidity for prostate cancer associated with Parkinson's disease were computed using conditional logistic regression. Analyses were stratified by duration of Parkinson's disease and stage of prostate cancer (localized and advanced).ResultsIn total, 245 patients (0,5%) and 1656 controls (0,7%) had Parkinson's disease. Overall, patients with Parkinson's disease had a 27% lower risk of prostate cancer compared with patients without Parkinson's disease (adjusted OR (ORa) 0.73; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.63-0.83).Risk of prostate cancer decreased with increasing duration of Parkinson's disease.The odds ratios were slightly lower for advanced prostate cancer (ORa, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.52-0.88) than for localized prostate cancer (ORa 0.76; 95% CI, 0.61-0.93).ConclusionParkinson's disease was associated with a risk reduction overall (27%), which decreased with increasing duration of Parkinson's disease.