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. 2014 Apr 2;110(7):1825-33.
doi: 10.1038/bjc.2014.97. Epub 2014 Mar 4.

Immune-related conditions and subsequent risk of brain cancer in a cohort of 4.5 million male US veterans

E K Cahoon  1 , P D Inskip  1 , G Gridley  1 , A V Brenner  1
Affiliations

Immune-related conditions and subsequent risk of brain cancer in a cohort of 4.5 million male US veterans

E K Cahoon et al. Br J Cancer. .

Abstract

Background: Case-control studies have reported an inverse association between self-reported history of allergy and risk of glioma, but cohort data are limited. Our objectives were to evaluate the associations of major groups of medically diagnosed immune-related conditions (allergy/atopy, autoimmune disease, diabetes, infectious/inflammatory disease) and to explore associations with specific conditions in relation to subsequent diagnosis of brain cancer in a large cohort study.

Methods: We used hospital discharge records for a cohort of 4.5 million male US veterans, of whom 4383 developed primary brain cancer. Rate ratios (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using time-dependent Poisson regression.

Results: We found a significant trend of decreasing RRs for brain cancer with longer duration of allergy/atopy (P=0.02), but not for other conditions studied. Rate ratios of brain cancer for allergy/atopy and diabetes with duration of 10 or more years were 0.60 (95% CI: 0.43, 0.83) and 0.75 (95% CI: 0.62, 0.93), respectively. Several associations with specific conditions were found, but these did not withstand correction for multiple comparisons.

Conclusions: This study lends some support to an inverse association between allergy/atopy and diabetes of long duration and brain cancer risk, but prospective studies with biological samples are needed to uncover the underlying biological mechanisms.

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