Association of allergic diseases and epilepsy with risk of glioma, meningioma and acoustic neuroma. Results from the INTERPHONE international case–control study

We investigated the association of allergic diseases and epilepsy with risk of brain tumours, in Interphone, a 13-country
case–control study. Data were obtained from 2693 glioma cases, 2396 meningioma cases, and 1102 acoustic neuroma cases
and their 6321 controls. Conditional logistic regression models were used to estimate pooled odds ratios (ORs) and their
respective 95% confdence intervals (CIs), adjusted for education and time at interview. Reduced ORs were observed for
glioma in relation to physician-diagnosed asthma (OR=0.73; CI 0.58–0.92), hay fever (OR 0.72; CI 0.61–0.86), and eczema
(OR 0.78, CI 0.64–0.94), but not for meningioma or acoustic neuroma. Previous diagnosis of epilepsy was associated with
an increased OR for glioma (2.94; CI 1.87–4.63) and for meningioma (2.12; CI 1.27–3.56), but not for acoustic neuroma.
This large-scale case–control study adds to the growing evidence that people with allergies have a lower risk of developing
glioma, but not meningioma or acoustic neuroma. It also supports clinical observations of epilepsy prior to the diagnosis
of glioma and meningioma.