Asthma, eczema sufferers 'at lower risk of developing cancer'

Washington, July 21 (ANI): In a new study, scientists found that men who had a history of asthma or eczema generally had a lower risk of developing cancer.

Researchers at INRS-Institute Armand-Frappier, the Research Centre of the Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal, and McGill University, analyzed information that was collected in a study on exposures in the workplace and the risk of developing cancer, undertaken between August 1979 and March 1986.

It involved 3,300 men, between 35 and 70 years of age, who had been diagnosed with cancer in one of Montreal's 18 hospitals, and a control group of 512 people from the general population who did not have cancer.

"Asthma and eczema are allergies brought about by a hyper-reactive immune system - a state which might have enabled abnormal cells to have been eliminated more efficiently, thereby reducing the risk of cancer," explained Professor Marie-Claude Rousseau of the INRS-Institut Armand-Frappier, one of the co-authors of the research.

Although the study did not allow to identify which specific factors related to asthma and eczema were responsible for reducing the risk of cancer, it offers new angles for research into the molecular and immunological mechanisms that are involved in immunostimulation, a potentially promising strategy for cancer prevention.

The findings have been published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. (ANI)