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. 2016 Feb;25(2):282-90.
doi: 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-15-0847.

Approaching a Scientific Consensus on the Association between Allergies and Glioma Risk: A Report from the Glioma International Case-Control Study

E Susan Amirian  1 , Renke Zhou  1 , Margaret R Wrensch  2 , Sara H Olson  3 , Michael E Scheurer  1 , Dora Il'yasova  4 , Daniel Lachance  5 , Georgina N Armstrong  1 , Lucie S McCoy  2 , Ching C Lau  1 , Elizabeth B Claus  6 , Jill S Barnholtz-Sloan  7 , Joellen Schildkraut  8 , Francis Ali-Osman  9 , Siegal Sadetzki  10 , Christoffer Johansen  11 , Richard S Houlston  12 , Robert B Jenkins  13 , Jonine L Bernstein  3 , Ryan T Merrell  14 , Faith G Davis  15 , Rose Lai  16 , Sanjay Shete  17 , Christopher I Amos  18 , Beatrice S Melin  19 , Melissa L Bondy  20
Affiliations

Approaching a Scientific Consensus on the Association between Allergies and Glioma Risk: A Report from the Glioma International Case-Control Study

E Susan Amirian et al. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2016 Feb.

Abstract

Background: Several previous studies have found inverse associations between glioma susceptibility and a history of allergies or other atopic conditions. Some evidence indicates that respiratory allergies are likely to be particularly relevant with regard to glioma risk. Using data from the Glioma International Case-Control Study (GICC), we examined the effects of respiratory allergies and other atopic conditions on glioma risk.

Methods: The GICC contains detailed information on history of atopic conditions for 4,533 cases and 4,171 controls, recruited from 14 study sites across five countries. Using two-stage random-effects restricted maximum likelihood modeling to calculate meta-analysis ORs, we examined the associations between glioma and allergy status, respiratory allergy status, asthma, and eczema.

Results: Having a history of respiratory allergies was associated with an approximately 30% lower glioma risk, compared with not having respiratory allergies (mOR, 0.72; 95% confidence interval, 0.58-0.90). This association was similar when restricting to high-grade glioma cases. Asthma and eczema were also significantly protective against glioma.

Conclusion: A substantial amount of data on the inverse association between atopic conditions and glioma has accumulated, and findings from the GICC study further strengthen the existing evidence that the relationship between atopy and glioma is unlikely to be coincidental.

Impact: As the literature approaches a consensus on the impact of allergies in glioma risk, future research can begin to shift focus to what the underlying biologic mechanism behind this association may be, which could, in turn, yield new opportunities for immunotherapy or cancer prevention.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Site-specific and meta-analysis odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals from the Glioma International Case-Control Study (GICC) for the association between history of respiratory allergies and glioma risk: overall (A), for high-grade glioma (B), and for lower-grade glioma (C). Meta-analysis odds ratio was calculated using restricted maximum likelihood modelling.
Figure 1
Figure 1
Site-specific and meta-analysis odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals from the Glioma International Case-Control Study (GICC) for the association between history of respiratory allergies and glioma risk: overall (A), for high-grade glioma (B), and for lower-grade glioma (C). Meta-analysis odds ratio was calculated using restricted maximum likelihood modelling.
Figure 1
Figure 1
Site-specific and meta-analysis odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals from the Glioma International Case-Control Study (GICC) for the association between history of respiratory allergies and glioma risk: overall (A), for high-grade glioma (B), and for lower-grade glioma (C). Meta-analysis odds ratio was calculated using restricted maximum likelihood modelling.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Site-specific and meta-analysis odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals from the Glioma International Case-Control Study (GICC) for the associations between history of asthma and glioma risk. Meta-analysis odds ratio was calculated using restricted maximum likelihood modelling.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Site-specific and meta-analysis odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals from the Glioma International Case-Control Study (GICC) for the associations between history of eczema and glioma risk. Meta-analysis odds ratio was calculated using restricted maximum likelihood modelling.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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