Parkinson’s Disease Development in Cancer Patients: A population-based nested case-control study

With the increase in cancer survival rates, there is growing interest in the development of progressive neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease (PD). Thus, we examined the factors associated with the development of PD in cancer patients. In this nested case-control study, we used customized cohort data with PD in Korea from 2010 to 2021 from National Insurance Service system. Among 218,171 cancer patients, 17,338 patients were diagnosed with PD. After 1:1 matching with age and sex, the case and control groups were selected, 11,347 in each group. After adjusting for age, sex, and comorbidities, dementia followed by cerebrovascular disease were significantly associated with PD development. Similar findings were observed in a subgroup of patients with colorectal cancer, where cerebrovascular disease, dementia, and severe liver disease were significantly linked to a higher incidence of PD. Risk factors such as dementia and cerebrovascular disease may play a significant role in patients with cancer for the development of PD.