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Glioma risk may be inversely related to atopic conditions
Il’yasova D. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2009;18:1232-1238. Updated version: doi:10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-08-0995.
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Inverse associations between gliomas and atopic conditions were observed in a case-control study involving friends and siblings of glioma patients, according to updated findings from a study originally published in 2009.
Researchers from several sites in the US investigated links between a history of allergies, asthma and eczema and glioma risk. They highlighted the importance of case-control studies in glioma research. The aim was to shed further light on glioma etiology with regard to atopic conditions using data from siblings and friends of patients and clinic-based controls.
The study involved 388 patients with incident glioma. The control group included 80 siblings and 191 friends of patients, and 177 individuals from clinics.
Information on the medical history of patients was gathered via web-based or telephone survey.
Consistent inverse associations between allergies and glioma were observed, yielding an OR of 0.53 (95% CI, 0.15-1.84) for siblings, 0.54 (95% CI, 0.28-1.07) for friends and 0.34 (95% CI, 0.23-0.50) for clinic-based controls.
Asthma was inversely associated with gliomas but only for sibling controls (OR=0.43; 95% CI, 0.19-1.00). When the case patients were compared with clinic-based controls, the OR was 1.90 (95% CI, 0.89-4.07).
An inverse link was observed for eczema, but only among friend controls (OR=0.42; 95% CI, 0.15-1.18). However, wider confidence intervals were observed for eczema than the other two conditions, presumably because eczema is less prevalent, according to the researchers.
Other results indicated that “the number of reported conditions was inversely associated with the case-control status,” the researchers wrote. “The risk of glioma decreased 31% to 45% with each addition of a condition.”
The researchers also noted that clinic-based controls may more accurately approximate prevalence data for population-based groups.
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