Levodopa therapy and malignant melanoma.

Concern has been voiced over a role for levodopa in the induction or stimulation of growth of cutaneous malignant melanoma. Prospective query of 1,099 patients of the Melanoma Clinical Cooperative Group at the time of presentation of their primary melanoma showed only one patient who had been taking levodopa. It was concluded that levodopa, if a factor in the induction of melanoma, must be playing an inconsequential role in the rapid rise in incidence observed for this tumor over the past decade.