54P - Association between Parkinson’s disease and brain tumours: A nationwide population-based cohort study

Background

Brain tumors are the most common tumors causing dysfunctions and the most fatal types of cancers. Patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD), the second most common neurodegenerative disorders, may be at high risk for brain tumors due to synucleins expression, chronic neuro-inflammation, levodopa therapy and radiations, but there is still controversy especially in Asia. Therefore, we conducted a nationwide population-based cohort study to assess the risk of brain tumors in patients with PD in South Korea.

Methods

We analyzed 52,009 patients diagnosed with PD between 2010 and 2015, and the age- and sex-matched 260,045 individuals without PD (mean age: 71.3 years; 40.8% men), using the data from the Korean National Health Insurance Database. Patients previously diagnosed with cancer were excluded. The cohorts were followed up to 2016 for cancer development. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to evaluate the association between PD and brain cancer.

Results

Patients with PD had a higher brain cancer risk (hazard ratio [HR], 1.73; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.05–2.85) in female patients with PD than in those without PD after adjustment for multiple covariates. There was no significant difference in brain tumor incidence between the two cohorts in men (HR, 1.02; 95% CI, 0.52-2.02).

Conclusions

This nationwide population-based cohort study revealed that patients with PD had higher risk of brain tumors than those without PD in Korea. Further studies are required to determine the underlying mechanisms.

Clinical trial identification

Editorial acknowledgement

Legal entity responsible for the study

The author.

Funding

Has not received any funding.

Disclosure

The author has declared no conflicts of interest.