Negative Association between Allergy and Cancer

Abstract

In a survey of 140 patients in the gynaecology wards of a large general hospital, the subjects were asked whether they suffered from any of the common hay-fever type allergies, for example, to flowers, bedding dust, etc. An incidence of 20 per cent was established. Surgical and biopsy reports on this ward population established an incidence of malignant conditions at 28 per cent. These two groups of comparable age turned out to be mutually exclusive. Reports of pregnancy nausea were also taken. Previous susceptibility to this varied from none to severe, and correlated positively with reports of common allergic type reactions, and consequently, inversely, with liability to gynaecological cancers in later life. The possible significance of this result in the studies of cancer is discussed.