Clinicopathologic Characteristics of Melanoma in Patients with Parkinson Disease

Patients with Parkinson disease (PD) are at high risk for developing melanoma, although current literature lacks details on the associated clinicopathologic characteristics. Our retrospective case-control study aimed to guide skin cancer surveillance recommendations for patients with PD, focusing on tumor sites. Our study included 70 adults with concurrent diagnoses of PD and melanoma from January 1, 2007 to January 1, 2020 at Duke University and 102 age-, sex-, and race-matched controls. The head/neck region accounted for 39.5% of invasive melanomas in the case group compared with 25.3% in the control group as well as 48.7% of noninvasive melanomas in the case group compared with 39.1% in the control group. Of note, 50% of metastatic melanomas in patients with PD originated on the head and neck (n = 3). Logistic regression showed 2.09 times higher odds of having a head/neck melanoma in our case group compared with that in the control group (OR = 2.09, 95% confidence interval = 1.13‒3.86; P = 0.020). Our study is limited by small sample size, and our case cohort lacked diversity regarding race, ethnicity, sex, and geography. Validation of the reported trends could provide more robust guidance for melanoma surveillance in patients with PD.