NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Having a history of allergiesor hay fever may offer protection from deadly pancreaticcancer, according to a study appearing in the InternationalJournal of Cancer.
Ayelet Eppel, of Mt. Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Ontario,Canada, and colleagues examined the association between ahistory of allergies or asthma and the risk of pancreas cancerin a population-based, case-control study in Ontario.
They identified cases of pancreatic cancer through theOntario Cancer Registry and recruited control subjects from theOntario Familial Colorectal Cancer Registry.
A total of 276 pancreatic cancer cases and 378 controlswere included in the study.
The investigators found that a history of allergies or hayfever was associated with a significant 57 percent reduction inthe risk of pancreatic cancer.
The reduction in risk was stronger in men than in women.There was no association between history of asthma and the riskof cancer of the pancreas.
"Further research is needed to replicate these findings,"Eppel told Reuters Health.
"If replicated, our findings may be of importance tounderstanding the biological mechanisms involved in pancreascancer development -- for example, the role of the immunesystem," the researcher explained, adding: "The associationbetween allergies and certain cancers has been found in otherstudies."
SOURCE: International Journal of Cancer, December 2007.
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