Is the risk of motor neuron disease increased or decreased after cancer? An Australian case-control study

Cancer appears to be inversely associated with both Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. The relationship between cancer and sporadic motor neuron disease (SMND), however, remains uncertain. Most previous cancer-SMND studies have been undertaken in northern hemisphere populations. We there...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2014-07, Vol.9 (7), p.e103572-e103572
Main Authors: Stoyanov, Alex, Pamphlett, Roger
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Alzheimer's disease
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Apoptosis
Australia - epidemiology
Cancer
Cancer research
Case-Control Studies
Confidence intervals
Development and progression
Diagnostic systems
Disease control
Female
Health risks
Humans
Male
Malignancy
Medical diagnosis
Medicine and Health Sciences
Melanoma
Middle Aged
Motor neuron disease
Motor Neuron Disease - epidemiology
Motor neuron diseases
Movement disorders
Neoplasms - epidemiology
Neurodegenerative diseases
Neurological diseases
Neurons
Northern Hemisphere
Odds Ratio
Parkinson's disease
Prostate cancer
Risk Factors
Rodents
Skin cancer
Smoking
Smoking - epidemiology
Studies
Subgroups
Surveys and Questionnaires
Tumors
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Summary:Cancer appears to be inversely associated with both Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. The relationship between cancer and sporadic motor neuron disease (SMND), however, remains uncertain. Most previous cancer-SMND studies have been undertaken in northern hemisphere populations. We therefore undertook a case-control study to see if a link between cancer and SMND exists in an Australian population. A questionnaire was used to compare past cancer diagnoses in 739 SMND patients and 622 controls, recruited across Australia. Odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were calculated to look for associations between cancer and SMND. A history of cancer was not associated either positively or negatively with a risk of subsequent SMND. This result remained when age, gender, smoking status, and the four SMND diagnostic subgroups were taken into account. No association was observed between SMND and specific tumours, including melanoma, a common malignancy in Australia. In conclusion, this Australian case-control study does not support an association between a past history of cancer and the development of SMND. This suggests that some pathogenetic mechanisms, such as apoptosis, are less relevant in SMND than in other neurodegenerative diseases where negative associations with cancer have been found.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0103572