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Average immunoglobulin E levels reduce the risk of brain cancer
Last reviewed: 30.06.2025
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Moderately high levels of allergic immunoglobulins reduce the likelihood of brain cancer. If the content of such antibodies in the blood is off the charts, this does not affect the likelihood of cancer.
The connection between allergies and cancer has long occupied scientists. Theoretically, the immune system should attack the tumor, but cancer cells have many ways to escape the immune attack. In allergy sufferers, the immune system is in a state of heightened combat readiness: in fact, “being on edge,” it often makes mistakes and reacts to harmless substances. And some time ago, a hypothesis emerged that allergies, although they cause a lot of trouble for a person, contribute to the timely detection of cancer cells. And the probability of getting cancer in an allergy sufferer is lower.
A number of statistical studies followed, but none of them were rigorous enough to satisfy the scientific community. The main drawback was that these studies still contained a significant probability of mere coincidence. Allergic signs in the immune system (for example, increased levels of specific antibodies) could be a consequence of anti-cancer therapy, in which case the delay in tumor growth and the “allergy” could be explained by the action of the drugs.
Scientists from Brown University (USA) tried to take into account the mistakes of their predecessors and conducted another study dedicated to the influence of allergies on the occurrence of gliomas, brain tumors. An increased level of immunoglobulins IgE serves as a sign of an allergic reaction, but in this case, the researchers did not go from one brain cancer patient to another, asking them about allergies and measuring the level of IgE in the blood. The scientists used data from several large-scale health programs in which about 10 thousand people took part. All of them at one time gave blood for analysis even before they showed signs of any malignant tumor. And now the researchers could compare cancer statistics with the initial level of allergic antibodies.
In an article published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the authors write that if a person's IgE level was elevated to the upper limit (i.e. up to 100 thousand units of antibodies per liter of blood), then the probability of brain cancer actually dropped. At the same time, curiously, if the antibody level was excessively high (more than 100 thousand units per liter of blood), this had no effect on the probability of glioma. The normal level of IgE in the blood is 25 thousand units. These statistics were the same for men and women and did not depend on what exactly the antibodies were produced for - food or respiratory allergens. At the same time, an elevated level of antibodies did not help patients with an already established tumor.
The authors particularly emphasize that this is the first work in which the probability of tumor occurrence was compared with the initial level of allergic antibodies that a person had before the disease. Thus, it was possible to avoid possible pitfalls, such as the fact that changes in the amount of immunoglobulins could be a consequence of the disease itself or its therapy.
The data obtained, of course, leave an unsolved mystery for the future related to the number of antibodies: why a moderately elevated level reduces the likelihood of cancer, while an excessively elevated level does not.