People with allergies are less likely to develop cancer
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
According to statistics, people suffering from the contact form of allergy are less susceptible to certain types of malignant tumors, including brain, breast and skin cancer.
If you can not go out in June because of poplar fluff, do not worry: in the future, your allergy will serve you well, protecting against cancer. As researchers at the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) write in BMJ Open, the likelihood that an allergic will develop a malignant tumor in the future is much less than in fully healthy people.
The findings of the scientists are based on data on 17 thousand adult patients who were tested for the presence of an allergic reaction; The time period of the collected statistics covered more than twenty years, from 1984 to 2008. The history of the disease was studied in the most detailed manner, including information from other medical centers where people applied. In 35% of cases, contact allergies have been reported, which occurs when the skin contacts chemicals or even metals (for example, with nickel) - this group includes those who at least once in their lives have experienced an allergic reaction to at least one allergen. Women are more likely to be allergic than men: 41% versus 26% of those who were susceptible to contact allergens. Of all 17,000 cases, on average, one in five addressed doctors with tumor formations, and only 38% of them showed a positive allergic reaction.
In general, researchers note a strict relationship between the likelihood of a cancer and the presence of an allergic reaction. Allergy sufferers suffered significantly less from breast cancer and non-melanoma skin tumors; allergic women less likely to have cancer of the brain. All this confirms the so-called hypothesis of immunological surveillance, according to which people with an excessively active immune system are less susceptible to cancer. In allergy sufferers, immunity is too responsible for the cause and, causing inconveniences in everyday life, simultaneously (and due to its increased "suspiciousness") effectively destroys cancer cells.
On the other hand, in the same article, scientists note that the incidence of bladder cancer in people with contact allergies was higher, apparently because of the high level of chemical metabolites accumulating in the blood.
Be that as it may, these results are only a statistical processing of a certain set of data and, like all statistics, can serve only as an impetus to further research aimed at revealing the mechanism of the phenomenon - in this case, the relationship between contact allergy and the incidence of cancer.
[