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Cancer Causes & Control
Published in: Cancer Causes & Control 4/2012

01-04-2012 | Original paper

Asthma and risk of brain cancer in children

Authors: Federico Roncarolo, Claire Infante-Rivard

Published in: Cancer Causes & Control | Issue 4/2012

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Abstract

Purpose

Little is known about the causes of central nervous system tumors in children. An inverse association between asthma and brain cancer was found in adults, but there is a dearth of studies in children. The goal of this study was to evaluate the association between asthma and brain cancer in children.

Methods

Two hundred and seventy-two cases of children with brain tumor diagnosed between 0 and 14 years of age in the Province of Québec, Canada, between 1980 and 1999 and 272 incidence density-matched controls were included in the study. The parents of cases and controls were interviewed by phone using structured questionnaires. Besides asthma in children, family history of asthma, the presence of other atopies, and medication intake were also investigated. Conditional logistic regression was used to analyze the data.

Results

Brain tumor risk was decreased in children with asthma (OR, 0.55; CI 95%, 0.33–0.93), with eczema (OR, 0.52; CI 95%, 0.17–1.57), and with both asthma and eczema (OR, 0.76; CI 95%, 0.18–3.2). Maternal or sibling asthma did not modify the effect of asthma on central nervous system (CNS) tumors, while father’s asthma seemed to increase the risk, but numbers were small. Antiasthma medications such as inhaled corticosteroid and beta agonists seemed to increase the risk of CNS tumors (OR for steroids, 2.55; CI 95%, 0.79–8.20 and OR for inhaled beta agonist, 1.62; CI 95%, 0.57–4.63).

Conclusions

This study strengthens the hypothesis of inverse association between asthma and brain cancer in children, but family history and medications for asthma need further investigation.
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Metadata
Title
Asthma and risk of brain cancer in children
Authors
Federico Roncarolo
Claire Infante-Rivard
Publication date
01-04-2012
Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Published in
Cancer Causes & Control / Issue 4/2012
Print ISSN: 0957-5243
Electronic ISSN: 1573-7225
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-012-9928-7

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