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People with allergies less prone to brain tumors, study says

NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Feb. 21, 2011

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Individuals with allergies are less likely to develop low- and high-grade gliomas. And the more allergies one has, the less the risk of developing a glioma, says a new study in the February issue of Cancer, Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, journal of the American Assn. for Cancer Research.

University of Illinois at Chicago researchers evaluated data from 419 brain cancer patients and 612 cancer-free patients from Duke University Health System in North Carolina and NorthShore University HealthSystem in Illinois. They found glioma patients were significantly less likely to report allergies compared with cancer-free patients.

"Our study confirms that there is a relationship between the immune system of allergy sufferers and glioma risk," said Bridget McCarthy, PhD, research associate professor of epidemiology at the UIC School of Public Health.

No difference in glioma risk was found for patients based on age, how many years since their allergy diagnosis or antihistamine use, the study said (link).

Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2011/02/21/hlbf0221.htm.

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