Adults susceptible to asthma and other allergic conditions may face a reduced risk of one fatal form of brain cancer, a study says.


Researchers from Sweden, the UK and Wake Forest University in Wake Forest, North Carolina, came to this conclusion after analysing DNA samples from 533 people, says a report in the website.

Of them, 111 had been diagnosed with Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a cancer that affects three out of 100,000 people - a rate that quadruples to 13 out of 100,000 among people who are 65 and older.

The average five-year survival rate from the time of diagnosis for GBM is only 3.3 percent, and is lower for people 65 and older.

The other 422 randomly selected participants served as controls. All of the subjects were asked if they had ever been diagnosed with asthma, hay fever or eczema and, if so, how long each of these conditions had lasted.

The researchers looked for polymorphisms on two genes associated with asthma and allergies, IL-4RA and IL-13. In this study, individuals with one or two specific polymorphisms on the IL-4RA gene that increase asthma susceptibility seemed to have a lower GBM risk. The same was true for two polymorphisms on the IL-13 gene.

"Our results suggest that self-reports of asthma and allergy are a pretty accurate way to determine someone's susceptibility to this particular type of cancer," said Judith Schwartzbaum, a researcher.