Allergic conditions and risk of hematological malignancies in adults: a cohort study

doi:10.1186/1471-2458-4-51

BMC Public Health
Volume 4

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Research article

Allergic conditions and risk of hematological malignancies in adults: a cohort study

Karin C Söderberg¹ , Lars Hagmar² , Judith Schwartzbaum¹^,3 and Maria Feychting¹

¹The Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Box 210, S-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden

²Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Lund University Hospital, S-221 85 Lund, Sweden

³Division of Epidemiology and Biometrics, School of Public Health, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA

author email corresponding author email

BMC Public Health 2004, 4:51doi:10.1186/1471-2458-4-51


Published:	4 November 2004

Abstract

Background

Two contradictory hypotheses have been proposed to explain the relationship between allergic conditions and malignancies, the immune surveillance hypothesis and the antigenic stimulation hypothesis. The former advocates that allergic conditions may be protective against development of cancer, whereas the latter proposes an increased risk. This relationship has been studied in several case-control studies, but only in a few cohort studies.

Methods

The association between allergic conditions and risk of developing leukemia, Hodgkin's disease, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and myeloma was investigated in a cohort of 16,539 Swedish twins born 1886–1925. Prospectively collected, self-reported information about allergic conditions such as asthma, hay fever or eczema was obtained through questionnaires administered in 1967. The cohort was followed 1969–99 and cancer incidence was ascertained from the Swedish Cancer Registry.

Results

Hives and asthma tended to increase the risk of leukemia (relative risk [RR] = 2.1, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] 1.0–4.5 and RR = 1.6, 95% CI 0.8–3.5, respectively). There was also an indication of an increased risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma associated with eczema during childhood (RR = 2.3, 95% CI 1.0–5.3).

Conclusion

In contrast to most previous studies, our results do not indicate a protective effect of allergic conditions on the risk of developing hematological malignancies. Rather, they suggest that allergic conditions might increase the risk of some hematological malignancies.