Hello. I'm Dr Arefa Cassoobhoy, a practicing internist, Medscape advisor, and senior medical director for WebMD. Welcome to Morning Report, our 1-minute news story for primary care.
Linked Diseases: Parkinson's and Melanoma
This week's news story is about a surprising connection between two seemingly unrelated diseases: Parkinson's disease and melanoma.
A Mayo Clinic study[1] looked at a cohort of almost 1000 patients with Parkinson's disease and found a fourfold increased risk for preexisting melanoma. Next, they assessed the prevalence of Parkinson's in more than 1500 skin and ocular melanoma patients. They also had a fourfold increased risk for Parkinson's.
Researchers don't yet know which environmental, genetic, or immunologic abnormality is linking these two diseases, but it doesn't seem to be the Parkinson's drug levodopa. For now, it's too early to recommend changing routine screening. However, it's still important for clinicians to be aware of the link-to be vigilant for one disease in patients who have the other, and to counsel those patients about their increased risk.
Follow Dr Cassoobhoy on Twitter at @ArefaMD
To see another Video :
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/884070
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