Antihistamine use and immunoglobulin E levels in glioma risk and prognosis.
OBJECTIVE
An inverse association between personal history of allergies/asthma and glioma risk has been fairly consistently reported in the epidemiologic literature. However, the role of regular antihistamine use remains controversial due to a small number of studies reporting contradictory findings. We evaluated the association between regular use of oral antihistamines and glioma risk, adjusting for a number of relevant factors (e.g., immunoglobulin E levels and history of chickenpox).


METHODS
We used a subset of the Harris County Case-Control Study, which included 362 pathologically confirmed glioma cases and 462 cancer-free controls, to evaluate this association using unconditional multivariable logistic regression. These models were run among the overall study population and stratified by allergy status. Cox regression was utilized to examine whether antihistamine use was associated with mortality among all cases and separately among high-grade cases.


RESULTS
Antihistamine use was strongly associated with glioma risk among those with a positive allergy/asthma history (OR: 4.19, 95% CI: 2.06-8.51), but not among those with a negative history (OR: 1.59, 95% CI: 0.95-2.67). There were no significant associations between antihistamine use and survival among cases.


CONCLUSION
The current study implies that regular antihistamine use may increase glioma risk. However, several larger studies are necessary before definitive conclusions can be drawn.
['Amirian|E Susan|ES|', 'Marquez-Do|Deborah|D|', 'Bondy|Melissa L|ML|', 'Scheurer|Michael E|ME|']
D000293:Adolescent D000328:Adult D001932:Brain Neoplasms D016022:Case-Control Studies D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay D005260:Female D005500:Follow-Up Studies D005910:Glioma D006633:Histamine Antagonists D006801:Humans D007073:Immunoglobulin E D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D060787:Neoplasm Grading D011379:Prognosis D012307:Risk Factors D015996:Survival Rate D055815:Young Adult
Immunoglobulin E Epidemiology Case-control studies Survival Brain neoplasms Hypersensitivity Risk factors