Prognostic and Biological Roles of Parkinson's Disease-Associated Genes in Cancer

Increasing evidence suggests significant associations between Parkinson's disease (PD) and cancer risks, with epidemiological studies revealing a complex relationship. PD patients exhibit lower risks of lung, genitourinary, and gastrointestinal cancers but higher risks of melanoma and brain cancers. Despite these observations, the underlying mechanisms between PD and cancers are poorly understood.

We aimed to identify molecular signatures underlying this complex connection by assessing transcriptional associations between PD-related genes, patient survival, and the cancer-specific co-expression networks in which these genes are involved.

To explore this, we analyzed transcriptomic data from 18 cancer types in the TCGA dataset (n = 6088) and 16 cancer types in the DepMap dataset (n = 682). We focused on seven genes causally implicated in PD (SNCA, PINK1, LRRK2, PRKN/PARK2, PARK7, GBA1, and ATP13A2) and conducted in silico analyses, to evaluate their associations with survival and correlation with genes, pathways, and response to drugs in the context of cancer.

Our findings revealed that the expression levels of the genes correlated with overall survival in a cancer-specific manner, often influenced by the TP53 genetic status. These genes were also associated with key cancer hallmarks such as genomic instability and cell proliferation.

This study suggests that PD and cancer may be connected through shared biological pathways, some overlapping with cancer hallmarks, and highlights the need for future mechanistic and functional studies to clarify the role of PD genes in cancer biology. © 2025 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.