August 22, 2026

@michaelokun

What resonates with me about this paper is that it addresses a question that has unnecessarily frightened people with Parkinson’s disease for decades: can I safely take levodopa if I have had melanoma? The answer from this International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society Scientific Issues Committee Viewpoint is reassuring. Although Parkinson’s itself may be associated with melanoma through shared biology, the accumulated clinical, epidemiologic and systematic-review evidence does not support levodopa as a cause of melanoma, and a history of melanoma should not by itself prevent someone from receiving our most effective symptomatic treatment for Parkinson’s disease. I particularly like the practical message in the figure: use levodopa when clinically indicated, continue appropriate dermatologic surveillance, and for people with active or previous melanoma, involve dermatology/oncology and use shared decision-making rather than reflexively withholding levodopa. This is a great example of how we should replace decades-old theoretical concerns with evidence, while still respecting what we do not yet know from prospective studies. https://movementdisorders.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/mdc3.70775