Family history of melanoma 'almost doubles Parkinson's risk'

Washington, Feb 17 (ANI): People with a family history of melanoma are two times more likely to develop Parkinson's disease, according to a new study.

During the study, researchers recruited nearly 157,000 people who did not have Parkinson's disease. They were asked if their parents or siblings had been diagnosed with melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.

The participants were tracked for a period of 14 to 20 years. During that time, 616 of the people were diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

They found that that people with a reported family history of melanoma were nearly twice as likely to develop Parkinson's as people with no family history.

"The results from this study suggest that melanoma and Parkinson's could share common genetic components," said study author Xiang Gao, MD, PhD, of the Harvard University School of Public Health in Boston, MA.

"More research needs to be done to examine the relationship between these two diseases," Gao added.

The findings will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 61st Annual Meeting in Seattle. (ANI)