Androgen Deprivation Therapy Did Not Increase The Risk Of Alzheimer’s And Parkinson’s Disease In Patients With Prostate Cancer
Division of Urology, Department of Surgery, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, Banciao, Taipei, Taiwan
Graduate Program in Biomedical Informatics, College of Informatics, Yuan-Ze University, Chung-Li, Taiwan
Sleep Research Center, Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
Sleep Research Center, Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
School of Health Care Administration, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
School of Health Care Administration, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
Department of Internal Medicine, Cathay General Hospital, Hsinchu, Taiwan
School of Health Care Administration, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
Correspondence:
Kuan-Chen Chen, School of Health Care Administration, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, 250 Wu-Hsing St., Taipei 110, Taiwan.
Division of Urology, Department of Surgery, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, Banciao, Taipei, Taiwan
Graduate Program in Biomedical Informatics, College of Informatics, Yuan-Ze University, Chung-Li, Taiwan
Sleep Research Center, Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
Sleep Research Center, Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
School of Health Care Administration, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
School of Health Care Administration, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
Department of Internal Medicine, Cathay General Hospital, Hsinchu, Taiwan
School of Health Care Administration, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
Studies Find Link Between Testosterone And Colon Cancer But No Ties To Prostate Cancer
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Two new studies may provide further information on the potential link between side effects of testosterone and different forms of cancer, with one suggesting that testosterone levels may influence the colon cancer risk and researchers in another indicating that they were unable to find any connection between use of testosterone drugs and a risk of prostate cancer.
In a study published last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the University of Missouri found that testosterone may be a contributing factor in the development of colon cancer, potentially explaining why men may be more likely to develop colon cancer than women.
Researchers looked at a group of male rats, removing testosterone in group and seeing a corresponding drop in the rate of colon cancer. When testosterone was given back to the rats, the rates of colon cancer returned to normal levels.
Previously, scientists believed that female hormones may have lent some sort of protection against tumor susceptibility, according to James Amos-Landgraf, lead researcher and an assistant professor of veterinary pathobiology. However, by showing that removing testosterone from rats leads to a drastic decrease in colon cancer susceptibility, it appears that male hormones may actually contribute to colon tumor growth rather than female hormones being protective.
Does Parkinsons Disease Increase Risk For Prostate Cancer
Scientists have been looking at the increased cancer risk in Parkinsons disease patients for years, particularly skin cancers and melanoma. Now, University of Utah School of Medicine researchers have found evidence to suggest a link between Parkinsons disease and prostate cancer risk and that the risk extends to both close and distant relatives with Parkinsons.
Parkinsons disease is a progressive neurologic disorder that leads to tremors and difficulty with walking, movement, and coordination. It most often develops after age 50 and equally affects both men and women. Parkinsons occurs when the nerve cells in the brain that make dopamine are slowly destroyed, causing a disruption of messages between the cells. There is no known cure for Parkinsons disease the goal of treatment is to control symptoms as long as possible.
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Literature Search And Data Extraction
This meta-analysis followed the MOOSE guidelines for reporting meta-analysis on observational studies and was registered on PROSPERO . We searched all published literature that reported PD association with cancer in MEDLINE via PubMed, Web of Science and EMBASE up to 1 March 2021. Search items related to PD, cancer and epidemiological studies were identified and modified for each database. We constrained our search in human studies and in the English language. Detailed search terms can be found in . Duplicates were matched based on author, year, and title in Endnote X9 and manually compared before removing.
Phosphatase And Tensin Homolog And Putative Kinase 1
PTEN was first identified as a tumor suppressor gene located on chromosome 10q23. PTEN removes the 3phosphate from phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5-triphosphate and eventually shuts down PI3K-Akt-mTOR pathway leading to growth inhibition and apoptosis . Frequent inactive mutations of PTEN were detected in a variety of human cancers including glioblastoma, advanced prostate, and endometrial cancers, and reduced expression is found in many other tumor types such as lung and breast cancer .
While its role as tumor suppressor is established unambiguously, emerging evidence shows that the biological function of PTEN extends to the CNS where it is widely expressed and localized to the cytoplasm and nucleus . Several studies indicate that PTEN is a crucial regulator of neuronal development, neuronal survival, axonal regeneration, and synaptic plasticity and has been linked to the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders at the molecular level . The main target of PTEN, mTOR, plays an essential role in maintaining the integrity of postmitotic neurons by regulating key cellular processes such as protein synthesis, autophagy, mitochondrial metabolism, and biogenesis . The selective inhibitor of mTORC1, rapamycin was shown to be neuroprotective in experimental models of Alzheimers disease and PD .
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Studies Of Cancer Associated With Automobile Accident Injuries
To evaluate ascertainment bias, we examined the relationship between cancer and automobile accident injuries occurring both before and after cancer. We expected no associations because we were unable to suggest a plausible hypothesis biologically relating automobile injuries to cancer. We also examined the risk of prostate and breast cancer after automobile accidents, two cancers on which potential confounding by smoking or alcohol would have little impact. As an acute injury, automobile injury claims were based on one medical visit. In prospective cohort analyses of cancer followed by automobile injuries, cancer patients were excluded if they had previous automobile injuries. In other respects, the analyses followed the models for cancer and PD.
We applied the Bonferroni correction to account for multiple comparisons when interpreting results of all the sub-groups and site-specific cancers for the 010 year follow-up period in the cohort analysis and thus used a corrected P -value of P< 0.0019 as a threshold for associations. P -values were based on two-sided tests. All analyses used SAS . This study was exempted by the National Institutes of Health Office of Human Subjects Research from institutional board approval.
Could A Common Prostate Drug Help Prevent Parkinson’s
HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, Feb. 8, 2021 — While scientists still don’t know what causes Parkinson’s disease, new research shows an association between a drug that some men take for an enlarged prostate condition and a reduced risk of developing the illness.
A team led by scientists at the University of Iowa, working in collaboration with researchers in Denmark and China, found that the drug terazosin and similar medications may have the potential to prevent or delay this debilitating neurodegenerative condition.
The researchers found that men taking terazosin were between 12% and 37% less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease during the follow-up period than men taking another drug for an enlarged prostate called tamsulosin.
“We don’t really have anything that can slow down the progression of the disease or stop the disease from progressing,” said study author Jacob Simmering, an assistant professor in the College of Medicine at the University of Iowa, in Iowa City.
“We don’t have any neuroprotective treatments and we’ve tried things and nothing’s really panned out in human trials so far. There’s really a critical need to have something to try to slow this down, not just to alleviate some of the symptoms, but actually make people’s lives better,” Simmering said.
Using data from the two different countries offered a more complete picture, Simmering said. The data are from 1996 to 2017 in Denmark and 2001 to 2017 in the United States.
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Mendelian Randomization Does Not Support A Causal Role For Different Cancers And Pd
We performed MR with the five cancers for which we had full summary statistics. We further included 10 additional cancers with limited summary statistics, resulting in 15 cancers being included in this part of the analysis . The variance in the exposure variables explained by SNPs ranged from 0.016 to 0.059 . All instruments had F-statistics of > 10, which is the cut-off that most studies apply to indicate sufficient instrument strength . No causal effect of any cancer on PD was observed . Significant heterogeneity was apparent for cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma and combined analysis of keratinocyte cancers . There was some evidence for net horizontal pleiotropy for brain tumors and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma which may have resulted in bias to IVW estimates, but the slopes from Egger regression were imprecisely estimated. MR-PRESSO identified potential outliers for cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma . The distortion test did not suggest significant changes in the effect estimates after these outliers were removed . The sensitivity analyses revealed no clear evidence for bias in the IVW estimate due to invalid instruments with other cancers.
Additionally, we performed reverse MR using PD-associated SNPs as exposure and cancer summary statistics as outcome and did not find any evidence of causal relationship .
Family History And Genetic Factors
Inherited factors explain around 59% of prostate cancers, it is estimated. A mix of genetic/biological factors and increased diagnostic activity in affected families may underpin the familial risk. Prostate cancer risk is not associated with prostate cancer in an adoptive parent , but it is higher sooner rather than later after diagnosis in a family member, , cohort studies have shown.
Family history
Prostate cancer risk is 2.1-2.4 times higher in men whose father has/had the disease, meta-analyses have shown. Prostate cancer risk is 2.9-3.3 times higher in men whose brother has/had the disease, meta-analyses have shown. Prostate cancer risk is 1.9 times higher in men with a second-degree relative who has/had the disease, a meta-analysis has shown.
Familial prostate cancer risk is higher in men aged under 65 compared with older men, and in men with more than one affected first-degree relative or with an affected relative diagnosed aged younger than 60.
Prostate cancer risk is 19-24% higher in men whose mother has/had breast cancer, cohort studies have shown. Prostate cancer risk is not associated with breast cancer in a sister.
BRCA1 and BRCA2
Lynch syndrome
Prostate cancer risk is 2.1-4.9 times higher in men with Lynch syndrome, compared with the general population, a meta-analysis and cohort study have shown.
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Inflammation And Carcinogenic Toxins
Inflammation can cause an environment that has an increase in oxidative stress, free-radicals caused by the oxidative stress create chain reactions within molecules in the body leading to many problems including the damage of cells. If these free-radical reactions occur in the nucleus of the cell where the DNA resides it may result in cancer. Lyme and its co-infections release various toxins into the body, the job of these toxins is to inhibit neurological and hormonal signaling to shut down the body’s defense mechanisms so the infection can feed on the body’s healthy tissue. The inflammation caused by the endotoxins and neurotoxins from Lyme disease and its coinfections may leave the patient more susceptible to develop cancer by producing an environment that is more likely to experience oxidative stress and may lead to abnormal gene regulation that could result in cancer. Early signals of Lyme disease linked inflammation may be seen in the brain and are common in patients experiencing Neuroborreliosis. A condition where borrelia, the Lyme disease bacteria, crosses the blood-brain barrier and enters the brain. Lyme is a complicated disease that can lead to cancer through inflammation and carcinogenic toxins but it can also make the body more susceptible to viruses that can cause oncogene changes resulting in cancer formation.
Is It Genetic Or Environmental
Underlying functional changes are part of the disease process for prostate cancer, PD and melanoma.1 PD and cancer seem to have opposite effects on cells. PD degenerates nerve cells, and cancer causes cells to grow out of control. Identifying any genetic links between these diseases may help direct future screening and development of treatment protocols. Similarly, environmental factors may play an influential role. The Utah study had a geographically-controlled and genetically-similar population.
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Financial Disclosures Of All Authors
ZGO has received consulting fees from Lysosomal Therapeutics Inc., Idorsia, Prevail Therapeutics, Denali, Ono Therapeutics, Neuron23, Handl Therapeutics, Deerfield and Inception Sciences . None of these companies were involved in any parts of preparing, drafting and publishing this study. AJN received grants from the Barts Charity, Parkinsons UK and Aligning Science Across Parkinsons and honoraria from Britannia, BIAL, AbbVie, Global Kinetics Corporation, Profile, Biogen, and Roche. The rest of the authors have nothing to report.
Further Research Is Needed
Controversy exists within the medical arena regarding the association between PC and PD.3 Scientific findings over the years have suggested a decreased cancer rate in people with Parkinsons compared to the general population. The risk of developing prostate cancer was said to lessen with the number of years a man has had Parkinson’s disease.
However, the Utah study and other findings support the need for further epidemiological and clinical research to explore the common pathways of both diseases. Future studies should consider ethnicity, time of PD diagnosis, and PD treatment regimens as part of investigating the association between Parkinsons disease and risk of prostate cancer.3 Scientists do not yet agree on either a causative or protective link between PC and PD. The literature can be confusing. Make sure to talk to your doctor about any concerns or symptoms you may have. Individual monitoring is, for right now, still the best way to enable the best medical care.
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Parkinsons Disease And Melanoma
Even in studies that have established a lower overall cancer risk in people with PD, the risk of certain specific types of cancers is higher than in the general population.
Melanoma is a type of skin cancer that has been consistently linked to PD. People who have had melanoma are at an increased risk for PD and people who have PD are at an increased risk of melanoma. The relationship between melanoma and PD is intriguing:
- The substantia nigra, or the black substance, is the area of the brain that contains the dopaminergic neurons that degenerate in PD. These neurons are full of neuromelanin, a dark pigment found in the brain which is related to melanin, a dark pigment found in the skin.
- Levodopa is a precursor for melanin and neuromelanin.
If a person regularly ingests Levodopa, he/she may be fueling the production of melanin, and possibly the production of melanin-containing cells, which in theory would increase the likelihood of melanoma. However, some studies have demonstrated that the increased melanoma risk is present in patients with PD even before Levodopa is started, suggesting that the relationship is not due to Levodopa intake but rather to a genetic link.
Epidemiological studies have shown an increased risk of non-melanoma skin cancers in PD patients as well.
What to do if you have an increased melanoma risk?
You should know what other melanoma risk factors you have. These include:
Benefits For Veterans Exposed To Agent Orange
Veterans with PD who were exposed to Agent Orange during military service and their families may be eligible for VA health care, disability, or survivor payments.7 VA offices and government websites can help locate available local services and forms needed to apply for medical, compensatory, and monetary benefits.
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Prostate Cancer Linked To Obesity
Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer among Canadian men and the third leading cause of cancer death. Abdominal obesity appears to be associated with a greater risk of developing aggressive prostate cancer. This link was demonstrated in a study led by Professor Marie-Élise Parent of Institut national de la recherche scientifique and published in the journal Cancer Causes & Control.
Over the years, several studies have shown that obesity is a major risk factor for prostate cancer. To further explore the link between disease incidence and body mass, the research team studied data from a survey conducted in Montréal between 2005 and 2012. Researchers observed that abdominal obesity was associated with an increased risk of aggressive cancer.
“Pinpointing the risk factors for aggressive cancer is a big step forward in health research because it’s the hardest to treat,” said Prof. Parent. “This data creates an opportunity to work preventively, by monitoring men with this risk factor more closely,” she added.
Abdominal and general obesity
General obesity did not show the same correlation as abdominal fat. This may result from a detection bias and possible biological effects. “In obese people, the protein used to detect prostate cancer at an early stage, prostate-specific antigen , is diluted in the blood,” Mr. Vallières says. “This hemodilution makes cancer more difficult to detect.”
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Lyme Disease’s Role In Cancer Development
Lyme disease is a complicated bacterial infection that is often seen accompanied by many other co-infections, this heightened number of infections could be making patients more susceptible to cancer. Infections have been shown to have three major modes of either causing or assisting in tumor growth, they cause inflammation, depress the immune system, and they can alter DNA causing mutations in the cell. Fortunately, Envita has developed patient specific and targeted treatment plans for Lyme disease and many of its coinfections, reducing the risk of developing cancer from infections for their patients.
Lyme disease patients may be very susceptible to cancer as Lyme can directly or indirectly cause all three of the mechanics that lead to tumor growth. Lyme disease and it coinfections directly cause inflammation of muscle and nerve tissue through endotoxins, biotoxins, and neurotoxins released by the bacterial infection. Lyme and its co-infections can severely depress the immune system making the body more susceptible to viral infections which can alter cellular DNA leading to cancer in a process known as oncogenesis. It is important to understand that Lyme disease is rarely seen alone and is almost always accompanied by other infections which must be addressed for proper treatment and cancer prevention.
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