Allergic Conditions and Brain Tumor Risk

Abstract

An inverse association between allergic conditions and glioma risk has been reported previously. In this large population-based case-control study, the authors identified cases diagnosed with glioma or meningioma in Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden, and southeast England between 2000 and 2004. Detailed information on self-reported physician-diagnosed allergic conditions was collected from 1,527 glioma cases, 1,210 meningioma cases, and 3,309 randomly selected controls. Logistic regression showed an odds ratio of 0.70 (95% confidence interval: 0.61, 0.80) for glioma associated with a diagnosis of any of asthma, hay fever, eczema, or other type of allergy. The risk estimates for glioma were around 0.65 for each allergic condition (asthma, eczema, hay fever, and food allergy), and the 95% confidence intervals were equally consistent, at around 0.55, 0.80. The reduced risks of glioma related to eczema, hay fever, and allergy overall, but not asthma, were confined to current rather than past conditions. Meningioma risk was not associated with allergic conditions, except for eczema (odds ratio = 0.74, 95% confidence interval: 0.60, 0.91). Our results show a reduced risk for glioma associated primarily with current allergic conditions. If this is etiologic, it has implications for the understanding of how allergic conditions might reduce the tumor risk.

Primary brain tumours and specific serum immunoglobulin E: a case–control study nested in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition cohort

“…Our results support those from case-control studies based on self-reported allergic diseases (5-7, 16, 17, 28-32) and especially those of one case-control study using IgE measurement at the time of tumour diagnosis (19). In two case-control studies, associations between age at onset or duration of allergies (in years) and glioma risk were investigated using questionnaire data, but with conflicting results (16,18). In one cohort study (10), a reanalysis of data from individuals who reported allergies 5 years before a diagnosis of brain tumours were similar to results of the whole cohort.…”

“…Most studies of allergies and brain tumours used questionnaire data; hence, allergies were self-reported (5,7,(16)(17)(18) and could therefore be influenced by recall biases or differential misclassification. Only one case-control and one cohort study defined the atopic status of the study participants by measuring total serum IgE levels in glioma cases and controls in addition to the questionnaire data (10,19) and another cohort study used a skin prick test (12).…”

Long-term Anti-inflammatory and Antihistamine Medication Use and Adult Glioma Risk

“…A recent report in a United Kingdom population showed a slight but nonsignificant reduction in risk associated with ever use of antihistamines by those reporting hay fever, allergic rhinitis, or conjunctivitis (7). A related report from the Nordic-United Kingdom pooled study also found a nonsignificant 22% reduction in the risk of ever antihistamine use in those reporting hay fever (10). These reports could differ from the current findings because of the definition of long-term antihistamine use in the current study or because of differences in use of these drugs between the different study populations.…”

“…These drugs act to alleviate symptoms associated with histamine release after exposure to allergens. We speculated that antihistamine use would be more common among persons prone to allergy and more likely to be associated with a decrease in risk, as has been report in previous studies (6,7,10). We used data from a case-control study on adult glioma in greater Houston, TX, to examine the relationships between these medications and glioma risk.…”

“…Epidemiologic studies suggest a lower risk for gliomas among people reporting a history of allergies and asthma (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10). Schwartzbaum et al (11) reported that asthma susceptibility gene polymorphisms in IL4RA and IL13 were associated with a decreased risk for adult gliomas; however, they were unable to show significance in a larger analysis (12).…”