Skin cancers and precancerous lesions in Parkinson's disease patients. |
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Authors: | Joaquim Ferreira MD João Maia Silva MD Rita Freire BS João Pignatelli MD Leonor Correia Guedes MD Alexandra Feijó MD Mário Miguel Rosa MD Miguel Coelho MD João Costa MD Ana Noronha BS Russell Hewett MD A. Marques Gomes PhD J.L. Cirne de Castro MD Olivier Rascol PhD Cristina Sampaio PhD |
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Affiliation: | Neurological Clinic Research Unit, Institute of Molecular Medicine, Lisbon School of Medicine, Lisbon, Portugal. joaquimjferreira@net.sapo.pt |
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Abstract: | Our objective was to evaluate the frequency of neoplastic and preneoplastic skin lesions in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients when compared with an aged-matched population. We performed a cross-sectional survey in PD patients and in an age-matched control group. Patients and controls were examined by a movement disorder specialist and a dermatologist. 150 PD patients and 146 controls were included. Thirty-five PD patients (23.3%) presented skin lesions that could be classified as neoplastic or preneoplastic vs. 20 subjects in the control group (13.7%) (OR 95%, CI 1.92 [1.05, 3.51]). However, this difference lost statistical significance when adjusted for gender (recruitment of controls was matched just for age with an over representation of males in the PD group). Twenty-nine PD patients (19%) presented actinic keratosis and basal cell carcinoma was diagnosed in 4 patients (3%). Although nonconclusive, our results are in agreement with previous studies suggesting an increased risk of skin cancer in PD patients. The frequency of actinic keratosis in PD patients and the associated risk to develop melanoma recommends its screening in future epidemiological studies. |
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Keywords: | Parkinson's disease melanoma skin cancer actinic keratosis |
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