Entacapone and P rostate C ancer R isk in P atients W ith P arkinson's D isease

Background The association between Parkinson's disease (PD) and prostate cancer, both common in elderly men, is disputable. In the STRIDE‐PD study, prostate cancer developed in 9 patients (3.7%) receiving levodopa/carbidopa with entacapone, a catechol‐ O ‐methyltransferase inhibitor, versus 2 cases (0.9%) without entacapone. The current pharmacoepidemiological study aimed to determine whether entacapone increases prostate cancer incidence or mortality in PD patients and whether cumulative exposure affects these rates. Methods We performed a retrospective cohort study using population‐wide health care registers with patient‐level linkage. Prostate cancer incidence and mortality were modeled by Cox's proportional hazards models. Results and Conclusions Use of entacapone with l ‐dopa/dopa decarboxylase inhibitor caused no increased risk of prostate cancer incidence (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.05; 95% confidence interval: 0.76‐1.44) or mortality (0.93; 0.43‐1.98). The HR for cumulative entacapone use of >360 days versus never‐use was 0.82 (0.56‐1.18) for prostate cancer incidence and 1.27 (0.60‐2.72) for prostate cancer mortality. © 2015 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society © 2015 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society