Page 25 - Read Online

in brain tumor patients, increases IgE levels. Lin et al. IgE levels can be easily measured, further research is
[9]
also studied the IgE levels in glioma patients and reported required to validate our preliminary observations.
that an increase in IgE levels posttreatment correlated
with better survival. In the present study, we found REFERENCES
[10]
a prognostic significance of pretreatment IgE levels in
glioblastoma patients. This has not been previously 1. Linos E, Raine T, Alonso A, Michaud D. Atopy and risk of brain
reported and required further investigation. 2. tumors: a meta‑analysis. J Natl Cancer Inst 2007;99:1544‑50.
Wiemels JL, Wiencke JK, Patoka J, Moghadassi M, Chew T,
McMillan A, Miike R, Barger G, Wrensch M. Reduced immunoglobulin
Meningiomas are the most common benign intracranial E and allergy among adults with glioma compared with controls.
tumor and account for nearly 30% of all intracranial Cancer Res 2004;64:8468‑73.
tumors. Meningiomas have also been showed to have 3. Wiemels JL, Wrensch M, Sison JD, Zhou M, Bondy M,
[11]
Calvocoressi L, Black PM, Yu H, Schildkraut JM, Claus EB. Reduced
an inverse relationship with history of allergies and allergy and immunoglobulin E among adults with intracranial
meningioma patients had lower total serum IgE than meningioma compared to controls. Int J Cancer 2011;129:1932‑9.
controls. A meta-analysis investigating the association 4. Turner MC. Epidemiology: allergy history, IgE, and cancer. Cancer
[3]
Immunol Immunother 2012;61:1493‑510.
of meningioma with the overall and specific allergic 5. Turner MC, Krewski D, Armstrong BK, Chetrit A, Giles GG, Hours M,
conditions found only eczema to have a significant McBride ML, Parent ME, Sadetzki S, Siemiatycki J, Woodward A,
inverse association. No significant association was Cardis E. Allergy and brain tumors in the interphone study: pooled
found for asthma and hay fever. [12] In their study, results from Australia, Canada, France, Israel, and New Zealand.
Cancer Causes Control 2013;24:949‑60.
Schlehofer et al. they found that the risk of glioma was 6. Backes DM, Siddiq A, Cox DG, Calboli FC, Gaziano JM,
inversely correlated to allergic sensitization; however, Ma J, Stampfer M, Hunter DJ, Camargo CA, Michaud DS.
this was not significant for meningiomas. [13] In the Single‑nucleotide polymorphisms of allergy‑related genes and risk
present study, no significant difference in serum IgE 7. of adult glioma. J Neurooncol 2013;113:229‑38.
Schwartzbaum J, Ding B, Johannesen TB, Osnes LT, Karavodin L,
levels was found between glioma and meningioma. Ahlbom A, Feychting M, Grimsrud TK. Association between
prediagnostic IgE levels and risk of glioma. J Natl Cancer Inst
Regarding other cancers, several studies have 2012;104:1251‑9.
consistently found that self-reported allergies are 8. Amirian ES, Marquez‑Do D, Bondy ML, Scheurer ME. Antihistamine
use and immunoglobulin E levels in glioma risk and prognosis.
associated with lower risk of pancreatic cancer. [14] Cancer Epidemiol 2013;37:908‑12.
Bosetti et al. reported an inverse correlation with 9. Barnes PJ. Corticosteroids, IgE, and atopy. J Clin Invest
2001;107:265‑6.
history of allergy for cancer of the oral cavity, pharynx, 10. Lin Y, Jin Q, Zhang GZ, Wang YJ, Jiang T, Wu AH, Wang JF,
esophagus, colon, rectum and larynx. Nevertheless, a Qiu XG. Increase of plasma IgE during treatment correlates with
[15]
recent study showed an increased risk of hematologic better outcome of patients with glioblastoma. Chin Med J (Engl)
malignancies in women with a history of allergies to 2011;124:3042‑8.
airborne allergens. [16] In the present study, 2 metastatic 11. Alexiou GA, Gogou P, Markoula S, Kyritsis AP. Management of
meningiomas. Clin Neurol Neurosurg 2010;112:177‑82.
lesions from patients with colon cancer were found. 12. Wang M, Chen C, Qu J, Xu T, Lu Y, Chen J, Wu S. Inverse
Patients with metastatic disease had significant higher association between eczema and meningioma: a meta‑analysis.
Cancer Causes Control 2011;22:1355‑63.
IgE levels than patients with gliomas and meningiomas. 13. Schlehofer B, Siegmund B, Linseisen J, Schüz J, Rohrmann S,
This finding needs to be verified on a larger scale. Becker S, Michaud D, Melin B, Bas Bueno‑de‑Mesquita H,
Peeters PH, Vineis P, Tjonneland A, Olsen A, Overvad K, Romieu I,
The present study has several limitations. First, the Boeing H, Aleksandrova K, Trichopoulou A, Bamia C, Lagiou P,
results are based on a series of 84 patients and should, Sacerdote C, Palli D, Panico S, Sieri S, Tumino R, Sanchez MJ,
Rodriguez L, Dorronsoro M, Duell EJ, Chirlaque MD, Barricarte A,
therefore, be considered preliminary. Second, given Borgquist S, Manjer J, Gallo V, Allen NE, Key TJ, Riboli E,
that only 31 patients had glioblastoma, the reported Kaaks R, Wahrendorf J. Primary brain tumours and specific serum
prognostic significance of IgE levels should be dealt immunoglobulin E: a case‑control study nested in the European
with caution and needs further investigation in larger Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition cohort. Allergy
2011;66:1434‑41.
studies. Another important limitation pertains to the 14. Cotterchio M, Lowcock E, Hudson TJ, Greenwood C, Gallinger S.
absence of a control group. Several previous studies Association between allergies and risk of pancreatic cancer. Cancer
consistently reported lower IgE levels for brain tumor Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2014;23:469‑80.
patients than controls. Thus we focused on the possible 15. Bosetti C, Talamini R, Franceschi S, Negri E, Giacosa A,
La Vecchia C. Allergy and the risk of selected digestive and laryngeal
impact of tumor type on serum IgE levels. neoplasms. Eur J Cancer Prev 2004;13:173‑6.
16. Shadman M, White E, De Roos AJ, Walter RB. Associations between
In conclusion, the present study shows that patients allergies and risk of hematologic malignancies: results from the
with glioma and meningioma have lower IgE levels than VITamins and lifestyle cohort study. Am J Hematol 2013;88:1050‑4.
patients with metastatic lesions. Patients with high-grade Cite this article as: Alexiou GA, Kallinteri A, Nita E, Zagorianakou P,
Levidiotou S, Voulgaris S. Serum IgE levels in patients with intracranial tumors.
gliomas have lower serum IgE levels than patients with Neuroimmunol Neuroinflammation 2015;2(1):15-7.
low-grade gliomas. In the glioblastoma, serum IgE levels Source of Support: Nil. Conflict of Interest: No.
are associated with tumor aggressiveness. Since serum Received: 19-08-2014; Accepted: 30-09-2014

Neuroimmunol Neuroinflammation | Volume 2 | Issue 1 | January 15, 2015 17