Cancer Risk May Be Lower For People With Contact Allergies

By April Clarkson, April 25th, 2013 | Health | 0 Comments

The risk for some types of cancer appear to be lower in people who suffer from contact allergies, according to a study released by the National Allergy Research Centre at Copenhagen University in Hellerup, Denmark.

The study, which was conducted by a team of researchers headed up by Kaare Engkilde, used data spanning nearly 25 years – 1984 to 2008 – and found that people who have contact allergies may have a natural immunity to a variety of cancers such as brain cancer, breast cancer and some types of skin cancer.

Data from nearly 17,000 adults in Denmark that had been tested for contact allergies was studied and researchers found that 35 percent of those tested had one or more contact allergies. Of the study participants, 41 percent of women tested positive while just 26 percent of the men tested positive.

The researchers looked at the number of cancer cases from study participants and found that women with contact allergies had a lower occurrence of brain cancer and all participants with contact allergies had lower rates of both non-melanoma skin cancer and breast cancer.
On the flip-side, there seems to be a higher occurrence of bladder cancer in those with contact allergies.