People With Allergies May Have Lower Risk of Brain Tumors
Date: 8.8.2012
New research adds to the growing body of evidence suggesting that there's a link between allergies and reduced risk of a serious type of cancer that starts in the brain. This study suggests the reduced risk is stronger among women than men, although men with certain allergy profiles also have a lower tumor risk.
Scientists conducting this study were able to analyze stored blood samples that were taken from patients decades before they were diagnosed with glioma. Men and women whose blood samples contained allergy-related antibodies had an almost 50 percent lower risk of developing glioma 20 years later compared to people without signs of allergies.
"It could be that in allergic people, higher levels of circulating antibodies may stimulate the immune system, and that could lower the risk of glioma," said Schwartzbaum, also an investigator in Ohio State's Comprehensive Cancer Center. "Absence of allergy is the strongest risk factor identified so far for this brain tumor, and there is still more to understand about how this association works."
