School of Health and Life Sciences, Teesside University, Middlesbrough, United Kingdom.
National Horizons Centre, Teesside University, Darlington, United Kingdom.
Mov Disord. 2021 Feb;36(2):340-346. doi: 10.1002/mds.28425. Epub 2020 Dec 21.
Cancer and neurodegeneration are two major leading causes of morbidity and death worldwide. At first sight, the two fields do not seem to share much in common and, if anything, might be placed on opposite ends of a spectrum. Although neurodegeneration results in excessive neuronal cell death, cancer emerges from increased proliferation and resistance to cell death. Therefore, one might expect significant differences in the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms. However, the more we deepen our understanding of these two types of diseases, the more we appreciate the unexpected overlap between them. Although most epidemiological studies support an inverse association between the risk for development of neurodegenerative diseases and cancer, increasing evidence points to a positive correlation between specific types of cancer, like melanoma, and neurodegenerative diseases, like Parkinson's disease (PD). We believe that deciphering the molecular processes and pathways underlying one of these diseases may significantly increase our understanding about the other. Therefore, the identification of novel biomarkers and therapeutic approaches in cancer, may lead to improved diagnosis and treatment of neurodegeneration, and vice versa. In this Viewpoint, we summarize recent findings connecting both diseases and speculate that insights from one disease may inform on mechanisms, and help identify novel biomarkers and targets for intervention, possibly leading to improved management of both diseases. © 2020 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.
癌症和神经退行性疾病是全球发病率和死亡率的两个主要原因。乍一看，这两个领域似乎没有太多共同点，如果有的话，它们可能处于一个光谱的两端。虽然神经退行性疾病导致过多的神经元细胞死亡，但癌症是由于细胞增殖增加和对细胞死亡的抵抗力增强而产生的。因此，人们可能会期望在潜在的病理生理机制方面存在显著差异。然而，我们对这两种疾病的理解越深，就越能理解它们之间意想不到的重叠。尽管大多数流行病学研究支持神经退行性疾病的发病风险与癌症之间呈负相关，但越来越多的证据表明，特定类型的癌症（如黑色素瘤）与神经退行性疾病（如帕金森病）之间存在正相关。我们认为，破译其中一种疾病的分子过程和途径可能会显著提高我们对另一种疾病的认识。因此，癌症中新型生物标志物和治疗方法的鉴定可能会改善神经退行性疾病的诊断和治疗，反之亦然。在本观点中，我们总结了最近将这两种疾病联系起来的发现，并推测一种疾病的见解可以为机制提供信息，并有助于识别新的生物标志物和干预靶点，可能会改善这两种疾病的治疗效果。
