Family history of melanoma perks up chances of Parkinson’s

Boston, February 18: A new study suggests that person who has family history of melanoma may be quite likely to develop Parkinson’s disease.

However, the reason behind the relationship was not clear but various other studies show that individuals with Parkinson's diseases are at higher risk for developing melanoma.

Lead author of the study, Dr. Xiang Gao of Harvard University School of Public Health, Boston, United States, said, "For people with a family member with melanoma, they may be at risk for Parkinson's disease."

For the current study, Dr. Gao and team looked at the data of 131,995 men and women who did not have Parkinson's disease. These people were participating in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study and the Nurses' Health Study.

Over the next 14 to 20 years, 616 subjects developed Parkinson's disease. The researchers found that among those subjects who had also reported a family history of skin, the risk for developing Parkinson's disease was almost double.

The researchers reported that even after adjusting other factors such as smoking, ethnicity, caffeine intake and other variables, the family history of melanoma in a first-degree relative was associated with an increased risk of Parkinson's disease. However, a family history of colorectal, lung, prostate or breast cancerdefine had no significant associations with Parkinson's disease.

Study author Gao explained, "The results from this study suggest that melanoma and Parkinson's could share common genetic components. More research needs to be done to examine the relationship between these two diseases."

Recently, Dr. Gao and team found that people with red hair color or a variant of a pigmentation gene called MC1R, were about two to three times more likely to develop Parkinson's disease.

"Both red hair color and MC1R gene are well established risk factors for melanoma," Gao explained.

Parkinson's disease is a degenerative neurological condition. Both men and women are affected equally and it is more common in people above 50 years of age, though it can occur in younger people: about one in 10 of those diagnosed are under 40. Symptoms are tremors, stiffness and slow or hesitant speech .Till yet there is no cure for Parkinson.

The results of the study are due to be presented on May 1 at the American Academy of Neurology's annual meeting in Seattle.