Cancer and blood concentrations of the comutagen harmane in essential tremor

Blood concentrations of harmane, a tremor‐producing neurotoxin, are elevated in essential tremor (ET). Harmane is also a comutagen. Using a case‐control design, we compared the prevalence of cancer in ET cases vs. controls, and determined whether blood harmane concentrations are elevated among ET ca...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Movement disorders 2008-09, Vol.23 (12), p.1747-1751
Main Authors: Louis, Elan D., Pellegrino, Kathryn M., Factor-Litvak, Pam, Rios, Eileen, Jiang, Wendy, Henchcliffe, Claire, Zheng, Wei
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aged
Biological and medical sciences
cancer
Chi-Square Distribution
epidemiology
essential tremor
Essential Tremor - blood
Essential Tremor - genetics
Female
harmane
Harmine - analogs & derivatives
Harmine - blood
Harmine - genetics
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Neoplasms - blood
Neoplasms - genetics
Nervous system (semeiology, syndromes)
Nervous system as a whole
Neurology
toxin
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Summary:Blood concentrations of harmane, a tremor‐producing neurotoxin, are elevated in essential tremor (ET). Harmane is also a comutagen. Using a case‐control design, we compared the prevalence of cancer in ET cases vs. controls, and determined whether blood harmane concentrations are elevated among ET cases with cancer. 66/267 (24.7%) ET cases vs. 55/331 (16.6%) controls had cancer (adjusted OR 1.52, 95% CI 1.01–2.30, P = 0.04). Among specific cancer types, colon cancer was more prevalent in ET cases than controls (2.6% vs. 0.6%, P = 0.04). Log blood harmane concentration was higher in ET cases vs. controls (P = 0.02) and in participants with vs. without cancer (P = 0.02). Log blood harmane concentration was highest in ET cases with cancer when compared with other groups (P = 0.009). These links between cancer and ET and between high blood harmane and cancer in ET deserve further study. © 2008 Movement Disorder Society
ISSN:0885-3185
1531-8257
DOI:10.1002/mds.22084