NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - "Rates of malignant melanoma and skin cancer are increased before a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease, new research suggests. This casts doubt on the notion that levodopa therapy for Parkinson's disease may contribute to the observed higher risk of malignant melanoma in such patients........

......the prevalence of malignant melanoma was 44 percent higher and the prevalence of skin carcinoma was 26 percent higher in patients with Parkinson's disease compared with controls.......


......The current findings, Olsen and colleagues conclude, appear to weaken the hypothesis that levodopa is causally related to an increased risk of malignant melanoma."



http://today.reuters.com/news/articl...PARKINSONS.xml

Paul Allen hopes brain map will help science

SEATTLE - "A map of the mouse brain down to details of individual cells has been completed, the first project of an institute funded by Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul G. Allen, it was announced Tuesday.

The new Allen Brain Atlas is being made available online without cost to neuroscientists studying brain circuits and chemistry, a potential boon to cancer and other disease research because of similarities between the brains of mice and human beings, according to a statement issued by the Allen Institute of Brain Science.

"We want people to use this and make discoveries," Dr. Allan Jones, the institute's chief scientific officer, told The Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

A formal announcement was planned in Washington, D.C., with Allen and Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash, and Ted Stevens, R-Alaska.

Allen Brain Atlas

Because more than 90 percent of the same genes are found in mice and humans, the mouse brain map can be compared with genetic findings related to human neurological disorders.

Because more than 90 percent of the same genes are found in mice and humans, the mouse brain map can be compared with genetic findings related to human neurological disorders.

Moreover, the mapping project has shown that 80 percent of the body's genes are switched on in the brain, compared with 60 percent to 70 percent in previous scientific estimates, Jones said....."

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