A new study out of Taiwan has found an association between Parkinson’s disease and 16 types of cancer.

The Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database examined 62,023 patients that had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s between 2004 and 2010, as well as 124,046 patients without PD, who were used as a control, according to an Economic Times report.

Pan-Chyr Yang of the National Taiwan University College of Medicine in Taipei was quoted in the report as saying that this nationwide study means the scientists can conclude that PD is a risk factor for, in fact, most cancer in Taiwan.

Breast, ovarian, and thyroid cancers were not consider linked to Parkinson’s, however. They were the only cancers that weren’t, though.

PD was linked to 16 cancers, including malignant brain tumors, lung cancer, lymphoma, and skin cancers.

The study focused on East Asian populations and attempted to explain the correlation between Parkinson’s and cancers, and further studies will be needed to see if this research can be applied to other East Asian populations, and perhaps beyond.

Yang suggested that the reason for differences in East Asian populations when it comes to linkages between PD and cancers — there have been different findings in Western studies — could come down to ethnicity and environmental exposures to certain diseases.

Parkinson’s disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that often results in loss of muscle control and shaking commonly seen in PD patients. The scientists in this study did not explain why there is a link between Parkinson’s and these cancers, only that there appears to be a strong correlation between the two.