Increased risk of brain tumor in patients with Parkinson's disease: a nationwide cohort study in Taiwan.
OBJECTIVE
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease. A decreased risk of cancer, except for melanoma, has been observed in patients with PD. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between brain tumor and PD in a Taiwanese population.


METHODS
We used data from the National Health Insurance program of Taiwan. The PD cohort contained 2998 patients, and each patient was frequency-matched, based on age and sex, with 4 people without PD, who were randomly selected from the general population. Cox's proportional hazard regression analysis was conducted to estimate the effects of PD on the risk of brain tumor.


RESULTS
The risk of developing brain tumor was significantly higher in patients with PD than in those without PD (adjusted hazard ratio = 2.11; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.24-3.59), and benign brain tumor exhibited a particularly elevated risk of 2.16-fold (95% CI = 1.26-3.68). The hazard ratio (HR) for developing a benign brain tumor was higher in female patients with PD than in female patients without PD, with the risk being 2.65-fold (95% CI = 1.30-5.43). An analysis of the two age groups, 50-64 years and ≥65 years, showed that the HR of only the 50-64-year group was significantly higher between the PD and non-PD groups (HR = 2.77, 95% CI = 1.07-7.14).


CONCLUSIONS
The present study showed that Taiwanese patients with PD are at a higher risk of developing brain tumor than the general population. The exact underlying etiologies require further investigation.
Department of Neurology, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.|School of Medicine, Medical College, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
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Tang
Department of Neurology, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.|School of Medicine, Medical College, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.|Graduate Institute of Neural and Cognitive Sciences, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
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Lu
School of Medicine, Medical College, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.|Management Office for Health Data, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
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Muo
Department of Neurology, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.|School of Medicine, Medical College, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.|Graduate Institute of Neural and Cognitive Sciences, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
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Tsai
Department of Nuclear Medicine and PET Center, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.|Graduate Institute of Clinical Medical Science and School of Medicine, College of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
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Kao
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013624:Taiwan
National Health Insurance (NHI) program; Parkinson's disease; brain tumor