History of allergies among adults with glioma and controls

Abstract

The causes of most adult gliomas are essentially unknown. Previous studies have indicated associations between immune system factors and the incidence of adult glioma, specifically that those individuals with certain allergic conditions may have decreased risk of glioma. We obtained detailed allergy histories for 405 adults newly diagnosed with glioma in the San Francisco Bay Area from 1997-1999 and 402 age-gender-ethnicity frequency-matched population-based controls. Seventy-nine percent of eligible cases or their proxies and 74% of eligible controls completed in-person interviews about allergies, age at onset, frequency, duration and severity. Overall, cases were less likely than controls to report any allergy (72% vs. 85%; odds ratio [OR] ‫؍‬ 0.5 [0.3-0.7]); for self-reported cases (n ‫؍‬ 269), OR ‫؍‬ 0.7 (0.4 -0.97) and for proxy-reported cases, OR ‫؍‬ 0.3 (0.2-0.5). Pollen, dairy and nut allergies were significantly less common in cases than controls and most other allergens had odds ratios of less than one. There were no apparent trends with numbers of symptoms, route of exposure of allergen or reported severity of allergy, but there was a significant dose-response with increasing numbers of allergens (p < 0.0001 for linear trend among all cases vs. controls and p ‫؍‬ 0.02 among selfreported cases only vs. controls). Although our work displays strong and consistent associations, future efforts must attempt to establish whether an immune system typified by proclivity to allergies, or an immunologic consequence of the allergies themselves, might be capable of preventing nascent brain tumors. The dominance of humoral immunity in the central nervous system is consistent with either of these models. Alternatively, common genetic or environmental causes for allergies and gliomagenesis may mediate or confound these observed inverse risks for allergies and gliomas, or other explanations may exist. Future work might reveal an important role for immunologic factors in gliomagenesis and potential preventative and/or therapeutic modalities. © 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc. Key words: allergy; glioma; brain cancer; case-control studyEpidemiologic studies have not identified consistent causal risk factors for the majority of adult-onset glioma, although a multifactorial etiology that includes a role for common genetic susceptibility loci is likely. 1-3 Also, the possibility of different causes for different histologic and molecular subtypes of tumors must be considered. 4 The detection of viruses and viral proteins in clinical brain tumor samples 5,6 has focused attention on the possible involvement of infectious agents in the etiology of glioma. In our previous population-based epidemiologic studies, we demonstrated an inverse association between the occurrence of glioma with self-reported history of chicken pox and shingles and serologic immunity to the neurotropic virus Varicella Zoster. 7,8 Interestingly, there was no association of glioma observed for Epstein Barr virus, Cytomegalovirus or Herpes Simplex I/II virus, the lat...

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 observations of case-control studies insofar that specific IgE levels overall show a negative association with glioma risk (17); however, taking into account a 2-year latency, this association was somewhat weakened. One explanation for the inverse associations between a history of atopic disease and cancer risk is the immuno-surveillance hypothesis, proposed first in 1970 by Burnet (15).…”

“…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).…”

Epidemiology of primary brain tumors: Current concepts and review of the literature

“…Among 405 adults newly diagnosed with glioma from 1997 to 1999 in the San Francisco Bay Area and 402 population-based controls frequency matched for age, sex, and ethnicity, fewer patients than controls reported any allergy (72% versus 85%), and the OR was 0.5 (95% CI 0.3-0.7); for self-reported cases (n = 269), the OR was 0.7 (95% CI 0.4-0.97); and for proxy-reported cases, the OR was 0.3 (95% CI 0.2-0.5) (Wiemels et al, 2002). Allergies to pollen, dairy products, and nuts were reported by fewer patients (a statistically signi cant association) than controls and fewer patients than controls also reported allergies to several other allergens.…”

“…Glioma caseversus-control ORs for history of any allergic disease were statistically signi cantly less than 1.0 at 4 study sites, were not statistically signi cantly less than 1.0 at 3 study sites, and were slightly greater than 1.0 at 1 study site (Sweden). In contrast, meningioma-versus-control ORs for any allergic disease were not signi cant at any of the study sites, being somewhat greater than 1.0 at 3 study sites, and somewhat less than 1.0 at 3 study sites.Among 405 adults newly diagnosed with glioma from 1997 to 1999 in the San Francisco Bay Area and 402 population-based controls frequency matched for age, sex, and ethnicity, fewer patients than controls reported any allergy (72% versus 85%), and the OR was 0.5 (95% CI 0.3-0.7); for self-reported cases (n = 269), the OR was 0.7 (95% CI 0.4-0.97); and for proxy-reported cases, the OR was 0.3 (95% CI 0.2-0.5) (Wiemels et al, 2002). Allergies to pollen, dairy products, and nuts were reported by fewer patients (a statistically signi cant association) than controls and fewer patients than controls also reported allergies to several other allergens.…”

Head Trauma and Epilepsy as Medical Risk Factors in the Development of Brain Tumors in Albania

“…The role of epilepsy in development of brain tumors in our study is unclear, this for the stigma that exist in our country on epilepsy, only 0.87 % (2 female, 6 male) of patients diagnosed with brain tumors referred to suffer from epilepsy from 10-15 years [9][10][11].…”