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Association of allergic diseases and epilepsy with risk of glioma, meningioma and acoustic neuroma: results from the INTERPHONE international case–control study

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Abstract

We investigated the association of allergic diseases and epilepsy with risk of brain tumours, in Interphone, a 13-country case–control study. Data were obtained from 2693 glioma cases, 2396 meningioma cases, and 1102 acoustic neuroma cases and their 6321 controls. Conditional logistic regression models were used to estimate pooled odds ratios (ORs) and their respective 95% confidence intervals (CIs), adjusted for education and time at interview. Reduced ORs were observed for glioma in relation to physician-diagnosed asthma (OR = 0.73; CI 0.58–0.92), hay fever (OR 0.72; CI 0.61–0.86), and eczema (OR 0.78, CI 0.64–0.94), but not for meningioma or acoustic neuroma. Previous diagnosis of epilepsy was associated with an increased OR for glioma (2.94; CI 1.87–4.63) and for meningioma (2.12; CI 1.27–3.56), but not for acoustic neuroma. This large-scale case–control study adds to the growing evidence that people with allergies have a lower risk of developing glioma, but not meningioma or acoustic neuroma. It also supports clinical observations of epilepsy prior to the diagnosis of glioma and meningioma.

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Data availability

Original data are not available as per ethical clearance and national data privacy legislations.

Code availability

Programming code of analysis used for the present paper can be obtained by contacting the corresponding author.

Abbreviations

IARC/WHO:

International agency for research on cancer/World Health Organisation

ICD-O:

International classification of diseases for oncology

CI:

95% Confidence interval

OR:

Odds ratio

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Acknowledgements

The authors like to thank Mr Klaus Schlaefer (German INTERPHONE team) for his contribution to this work and to INTERPHONE Germany in general, who sadly passed away before the end of this project. The authors are grateful to Lesley Richardson (Montreal, Canada – formerly at IARC) for her major role in the coordination of the study; Emilie Combalot and Helene Tardy for their skillful data management at the coordination centre; Dr Baruch Modan (Israel – deceased) for his assistance and enthusiasm in the design and setting up of this study; James Doughty (UK North), who performed miracles implementing the CAPI in several languages and several versions, assisted by Roger Parslow (UK North); Jan Ivar Martinsen for additional programming work; Liz Findlay (UK North) who contributed a great deal to the development of materials and training of interviewers; the research assistants and interviewers in the different study centres who ensured that the study was carried out with care and consideration for the participants; the clinical practitioners, particularly neurosurgeons and ear, nose and throat surgeons, who permitted and facilitated our approaches to their patients; and the participants who gave so generously of their time. The Australian team would like to acknowledge the overall support given to study design and implementation by Associate Prof. Michael Besser and Prof. Andrew Kaye; the special support Associate Prof. Besser and Dr Paul Fagan gave to this study of acoustic neuroma. We thank also our fieldwork staff in Melbourne – Monique Kilkenny, Georgina Marr, Tracey McPhail, Fiona Phillips, Hayley Shaw, Yvonne Torn-Broers; and Sydney – Matthew Carroll, Sally Dunlop, Virginia MacDonald and Elizabeth Willows – and the many interviewers for their hard work, and the NSW and Victorian Cancer Registries for aiding case identification. The Canada – Montreal team acknowledges the diligent work of fieldwork staff including Marie-Claire Goulet, Sylvie Plante, Sally Campbell and the interviewer team. The following hospitals and physicians in Montreal permitted access to their patients: CHUM – Hôpital Notre-Dame (Dr Wieslaw Michel Bojanowski, Dr Jean Jacques Dufour, Dr François Lavigne, Dr Robert A. Moumdjian); Neurological Institute of Montreal (Dr Rolando Del Maestro, Dr Richard Leblanc); Hôpital du Sacré -Coeur de Montréal (Dr Marc F. Giroux); The Jewish General Hospital (Dr Gerard Mohr, Dr Jamie Miles Rappaport). The Canada – Ottawa centre gratefully acknowledges the work of the interview team, particularly Lynn Pratt and Daniel Bedard for their leading roles in study coordination; participating clinicians at the Ottawa Hospital included Drs. Brien Benoit, Martin J. Corsten, André Lamothe, William Miller, Paul F. Odell, and David Schramm. The Danish Interphone team likes to thank Michael Kosteljanetz (Neurosurgical Department, Neuroscience Centre, University Hospital of Copenhagen), Hans Skovgaard Poulsen (Department of Radiation Biology, Finsen Centre, University Hospital of Copenhagen) and Jens Thomsen (Department of Otolaryngology– Head and Neck Surgery, Gentofte Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Hellerup). Furthermore, we like to thank Lars H. Thomassen for skilful computer assistance. The Finnish Interphone team acknowledges the roles of Tiina Salminen ja Anna Lahkola in study coordination and research nurse Anu Outinen (STUK), neuropathologist Hannu Haapasalo MD, PhD (Tampere University Hospital, Dept of Pathology), chief physician Risto Sankila, MD, PhD (Finnish Cancer Registry), Prof. Juha Jääskeläinen (Helsinki University Hospital, Dept of Neurosurgery, currently Kuopio University Hospital), Prof. Matti Vapalahti (Kuopio University Hospital, Dept of Neurosurgery), Prof. John Koivukangas (Oulu University Hospital, Dept of Neurosurgery), chief physician Simo Valtanen (Turku University Hospital, Dept of Neurosurgery), chief physician Timo Kuurne (Tampere University Hospital, Dept of Neurosurgery) in collection of the data. The French Interphone team would like to thank the French fieldwork team: Mary-Pierre Herrscher, Fatima Lamri, Agnès Boidart, Hélène Gire, Juliette Krassilchik, Judith Lenti, Delphine Maillac, Frédérique Sonnet, Flore Taguiev, Julie Frantz, France Castay, Florian Gay, for their excellent work; all the hospital services who assisted us in the ascertainment of cases: Lyon – Centre Hospitalier Lyon – Sud (Prof. Dubreuil), Hôpital Neurologique Pierre Wertheimer (Prof. Fisher, Prof. Vallée, Prof. Bret, Prof. Sindou, Prof. Deruty); Paris – Hôpital Foch (Prof. Chabolle), Hôpital Beaujon (Prof. Sterkers, Dr Bouccara), Hôpital Lariboisière (Prof. Tran Ba Huy), Marseille – Hôpital de la Timone (Prof. Peragut, Dr Regis), as well as all those in the departments of medical information and all the hospital personnel, particularly the secretaries and the staff in the medical archives, whose assistance proved essential to the success of the project. The German Interphone Group would like to thank Stephanie Estel, Marianne Brömmel, Melanie Kaiser and Anna Wilms for organizing the field phase and all our interviewers for their skilful work. We thank the clinical Interphone team for their support and collaboration (Bielefeld: Prof. Falk Oppel (Neurosurgical Clinic), Dr Uwe Dietrich (Neuroradiology), Dr Volkmar Hans (Neuropathology); Heidelberg: Prof. Andreas Unterberg, Prof. Stefan Kunze, Prof. Dr Karsten Geletneky (Neurosurgical Clinic), Prof. Klaus Sator, Dr Jochen Fiebach (Neuroradiology), Prof. Marika Kiessling (deceased) (Neuropathology); Mannheim: Prof. Peter Schmiedek (deceased), Dr Jochen Tüttenberg (Neurosurgical Clinic), Prof. Christoph Groden, Dino Podlesek (Neuroradiology), Prof. Uwe Bleyl (deceased), Dr Rainer Grobholz (Neuropathology); Mainz: Prof. Axel Perneczky (deceased), Prof. Nico Hopf, Dr Dorothee Koch (Neurosurgical Clinic), Prof. Wolf Mann, Prof. Nickalaos Marangos (ENT Clinic), Dr Wibke Müller-Forell (Neuroradiology), Prof. Hans Hilmar Göbel (Neuropathology). The Israeli centre wishes to acknowledge the following neurosurgeons for the help they provided in patients recruitment and ascertainment: Prof. Eli Reichenthal (Soroka University Medical Center), Prof. Moshe Hadani and Dr Roberto Spiegelman (Chaim Sheba Medical Center), the late Prof. George Vaaknin (Tel-Aviv Medical Center), Prof. Zvi Harry Rappaport (Rabin Medical Center), Prof. Felix Umansky (Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center), and Prof. Moshe Feinsod (Rambam Health Care Campus). We acknowledge the diligent work of the fieldwork and office staff including Etti Aviezer, Tehila Ben-Tal, Meirav Dolev, Yonit Deutch, Tamara Rodkin, Ahuva Zultan and the interviewer team. The Italian Interphone team (including Dr Ivano Iavarone, Prof. Bruno Jandolo, Prof. Paolo Vecchia, Dr Stefano Martini, Dr Emanuela Rastelli, Dr Antonello Vidiri, Dr Rita Basili, Dr Caterina Carnovale Scalzo, Dr Edvina Galiè, Eng. Lucia Ardoino, Eng. Enrica Barbieri, Dr Cristiano Tesei, Massimo Lucibello and Rossella Rossi) wishes to thank all the neurosurgeons, ENT-surgeons, neuroradiologists, pathologists, and health managers contributing to the study: Prof. Umberto Agrillo, Dr Amalia Allocca Dr Mostafà Amini, Dr Cinzia Bernardi, Dr M. Bonamini, Dr Loredana Bove, Prof. Luigi Bozzao, Dr Alessandro Bozzao, Dr Mario Braga, Dr Fabrizio Breccia, Dr Velia Bruno, Dr Andrea Brunori, Dr Antonella Buffoni, Prof. Arnaldo Capelli, Prof. Giampaolo Cantore, Prof. Natale Cantucci, Dr Emanuela Caroli, Prof. Cosimo Cassano, Dr Alessandra Castelnuovo, Dr Costanza Cavuto, Prof. Lucia Cecconi, Dr Franco Cerquetani, Dr Carla Colacecchi, Dr Antonio Comberiati, Dr Valeria D’Alfonso, Dr Giovanni De Angelis, Dr Luca de Campora, Prof. Roberto Delfini, Dr Carlo Della Rocca, Prof. Marco De Vincentiis, Dr Domenica Di Stefano, Prof. Stefano Esposito, Prof. Alfredo Fabiano, Dr Francesco Federico, Prof. Luigi Ferrante, Dr Anna Rita Fetoni, Dr Letizia Feudi, Prof. Roberto Filipo, Prof. Roberto Floris, Prof. Felice Giangaspero, Dr Renato Gigli, Dr Marco Giordano, Prof. Gianfranco Gualdi, Prof. G. Guglielmi, Dr Massimo Iachetti, Prof. Giorgio Iannetti, Dr Maria Rosaria Limiti, Prof. Giulio Maira, Dr Valentina Manciocco, Dr Annunziato Mangiola, Dr Ferdinando Marandino, Dr Luisa Marangoni, Prof. Pasquale Marano, Prof. Maria Enrica Martini Neri, Dr Luciano Mastronardi, Dr Arianna Mattioni, Prof. Maurizio Maurizi, Dr Maria Concetta Mazzeo, Dr Giuseppe Natali, Dr Gaetano Nostro, Prof. Emanuele Occhipinti (deceased), Prof. Antonio Orlacchio, Prof. Augusto Orlandi, Prof. Fabrizio Ottaviani, Dr Salvatore Passafaro, Dr Francesco Saverio Pastore, Dr Laura Pennesi, Dr Claudio Maria Pianura, Prof. Roberto Pisa, Dr Chimene Pistolesi, Prof. Giuseppe Poladas, Dr Siavash Rahimi, Prof. Antonio Ricci, Dr Giovanna Ricci, Dr P. Rigotti, Dr Massimo Rimatori, Dr Rossana Romani, Prof. Giuseppe Santeusanio, Dr Sergio Santilli, Dr Marco Scarpinati, Dr Lauro Sciannamea, Prof. Luigi Sinibaldi, Prof. Giuseppe Spriano, Dr Maurizio Giovanni Vigili, Dr Antonello Vidiri, Dr Massimo Volpe. We are grateful to Dr Francesco Forastiere, Daniela D’Ippoliti and Stefania Palange (Epidemiologic Unit ASLRME) for their support in case ascertainment from secondary sources and control selection. We acknowledge the collaboration of the Italian mobile phone network operators in providing us with traffic data for the exposure validation studies. The Japanese Interphone team would like to thank Prof. Suminori Akiba (Kahoshima University), Dr Yuriko Kikuchi (Keio University), Prof. Masao Taki (Tokyo Metropolitan University), Drs. Soichi Watanabe and Kanako Wake (National Institute of Information and Communication Technology) for their contributions in planning and conducting the Interphone study in Japan. The Interphone team from New Zealand would like to acknowledge the assistance and support of the neurosurgeons and support staff at the neurosurgical units at Auckland Hospital (headed by Mr Edward Mee), Wellington Hospital (headed by Mr Martin Hunn) and Christchurch Hospital (headed by Mr Martin MacFarlane); the staff at the medical record departments at Auckland Hospital, Wellington Hospital and Christchurch Hospital; the staff at the New Zealand Health Information Service and the New Zealand Cancer Registry; Mr Martin Gledhill at the National Radiation Laboratory; the regional coordinators for the study, Ms Cara Marshall, Ms Sue Hawkins and Ms Janfrey Doak. The Norwegian Interphone team thanks the Cancer Registry of Norway, the hospital staff; especially Prof. Tryggve Lundar (Rikshospitalet University Hospital), Prof. Knut Wester (Haukeland University Hospital), Prof. Bjørn Magnæs (Ullevaal University Hospital) and Dr Johan Cappelen (St. Olav University Hospital). We also thank the interviewers especially Margareth Kaurin for the hard work and dedication. The Swedish Interphone centre thanks the Swedish Regional Cancer Registries and the hospital staff; especially the following key persons at the hospitals: Dr J. Boethius, Dr O. Flodmark, Prof. I. Langmoen, Dr A. Lilja, Dr T. Mathiesen, Dr I. Olsson Lindblom and Dr H. Stibler (Karolinska University Hospital), Dr J. Lycke, Dr A. Michanek and Prof. L. Pellettieri (Sahlgrenska University Hospital), Prof. T. Möller and Prof. L. Salford (Lund University Hospital). All the interviewers and study administrators from the UK North are thanked for their hard work and dedication. The UK North centre wishes to acknowledge the support of the following neuropathologists, neuroradiologists, neurosurgeons, neuro-oncologists, clinical oncologists, neurologists, specialist nurses and administrators based in hospitals located in Scotland (Mr Barlow, Prof. I. Bone, Ms J. Brown, Mr J. Crowther, Miss R. Dolan, Mr Dunn, Mr M.O. Fitzpatrick, Mrs M. Fraser, Dr R. Grant, Dr A. Gregor, Mr Johnstone, Mr Lyndsay, Mrs S. Macnamara, Miss J. Mair, Mr R. Mills, Miss Myles, Mr B. O’Reilly, Mr V. Papanastassiou, Prof. R. Rampling, Mr Russell, Mr D. Sim, Mr P. Statham, Mr Steers, Mr Taylor, Prof Teasdale, Prof. I. Whittle), west Midlands (Dr J.M. Anderson, Dr Barbour, Dr C.R. Barraclough, Dr P. Bennett, Dr H.G. Boddie, Mr Brind, Dr Carey, Mr M. Choksey, Mr M. Christie, Dr R.N. Corston, Prof. G.S. Cruickshank, Dr A. Detta, Mr P. Dias, Dr S.J. Ellis, Mr G. Flint, Dr D.A. Francis, Mr A.H. Grubneac, Mr S.P. Harland, Dr C. Hawkins, Dr T. Heafield, Dr R.C. Hughes, Dr D.G. Jamieson, Dr A. Logan, Mr C.H.A. Meyer, Mrs R. Mitchell, Prof. K. Morrison, Dr P. Newman, Dr D. Nicholl, Dr S. Nightingale, Dr H.S. Pall, Mr J.R. Ponsford, Dr A. Shehu, Mr Singh, Dr J.A. Spillane, Mr P. Stanworth, Dr B. Summers, Mr A.R. Walsh, Mr J. Wasserberg, Prof. A.C. Williams, Dr J. Winer, Mr S. Zygmunt), Trent (Dr R.J. Abbott, Ms Sheila Adams, Mr Ashpole, Mr R.D.E. Battersby, Prof. L. Blumhardt, Mr P. Byrne, Miss M. Cartmil, Dr S.C. Coley, Dr P. Critchley, Dr Faraj, Dr A. Gibson, Dr P. Griffiths, Dr R. Grunwald, Dr T.J. Hodgson, Mr D.T. Hope, Dr S. Howell, Dr D. Jefferson, Mr D. Jellinek, Dr N. Jordan, Mr A. Kemeny, Dr M.C. Lawden, Prof. J. Lowe, Dr N. Messios, Ms Kirsty Pardoe, Dr S. Price, Dr I.F. Pye, Mr M. Radatz, Mr I. Robson, Dr K. Robinson, Dr C. Romanowski, Dr G. Sawle, Dr B. Sharrock, Prof. P. Shaw, Dr C. Smith, Dr W. Temperley, Dr G. Venables, Mr B. White, Mr A.M. Whiteley, Dr Wills) and West Yorkshire (Dr Al-Din, Dr D. Ash, Dr J. Bamford, Dr M. Bond, Dr G. Bonsor, Dr L. Bridges, Dr B. Carey, Dr Chakrabarty, Mr P. Chumas, Dr D. Dafalla, Dr H. Ford, Dr Gerrard, Dr Goulding, Dr J. Howe, Dr S. Jamieson, Dr Johnson, Dr Louizou, Mr P. Marks, Dr M. Nelson, Dr S. Omer, Mr N. Phillips, Mr S. Ross, Dr I. Rothwell, Dr H. Spokes, Dr J. Straiton, Mr G. Towns, Nr A. Tyagi, Mr P. Vanhille, Dr M. Busby). The Southeast England centre thank the study participants, D. Hogben, A. Butlin, J. Owens, A. Hart, R. Knight, C. Parsley, M. Pelerin, K. Sampson, M. Snigorska and M. Swanwick for help in data collection, Prof. H. Møller, Mr B. Plewa and Mr S. Richards, from the Thames Cancer Registry, and the following consultants and their teams for their support: Mr G. Brookes, Mr A.D. Cheesman, Prof. M.J. Gleeson and Mr N.D. Kitchen (National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery), Mr R. Bradford (Royal Free Hospital), Prof. M. Brada (Royal Marsden Hospital), Mr C. Hardwidge, Mr J.S. Norris and Dr M. Wilkins (Princess Royal Hospital), Mr M.M. Shah, Prof. A.J. Strong and Mr N. Thomas (King’s College Hospital), Prof. A. Bell, Mr H. Marsh and Mr F. Johnston (St George’s Hospital), Mr K.S. O’Neill and Mr N.D. Mendoza (Charing Cross Hospital), Mr R. MacFarlane (Addenbrooke’s Hospital) and Mr A.R. Aspoas and Mr S. Bavetta (Oldchurch Hospital).

Funding

There was no particular grant for the present work with the core writing group contributing from their regular positions (BS, MB, MM, JS), with some funding for travel and meetings provided by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC/WHO). The INTERPHONE study was supported by funding from the European Fifth Framework Program, ‘Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources’ (contract QLK4-CT-1999901563) and the International Union against Cancer (UICC). The UICC received funds for this purpose from the Mobile Manufacturers’ Forum and GSM Association. Provision of funds to the INTERPHONE study investigators via the UICC was governed by agreements that guaranteed INTERPHONE’s complete scientific independence. The terms of these agreements are publicly available at https://interphone.iarc.fr/funding. The Australian centre was supported by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (EME Grant 219,129) with funds originally derived from mobile phone service licence fees. Cancer Council NSW and Cancer Council Victoria provided most of the infrastructure for the project in Australia. The Canada – Montreal study was primarily funded by a grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (project 15 MOP-42525). Additionally, Dr Siemiatycki’s research team was partly funded by the Canada Research Chair programme and by the Guzzo-CRS Chair in Environment and Cancer. Dr Parent had a salary award from the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec. The Canadian centres in Ottawa/Vancouver were supported by a university–industry partnership grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the latter including partial support from the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association. The CIHR university–industry partnerships program also includes provisions that ensure complete scientific independence of the investigators. D. Krewski is the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Chair in Risk Science at the University of Ottawa. Additional funding for the study in France was provided by l’Association pour la Recherche sur le Cancer (ARC) [Contrat No. 5142] and three network operators (Orange, SFR, Bouygues Télécom). The funds provided by the operators represented 5% of the total cost of the French study and were governed by contracts guaranteeing the complete scientific independence of the investigators. The Finnish Interphone study received additional national funding from Emil Aaltonen Foundation and Academy of Finland (Grant No. 80921). The German Interphone study received additional national funding from the ‘‘Deutsches Mobilfunkforschungsprogramm [German Mobile Phone Research Program]’’ of the German Federal Ministry of Environment, Nuclear Safety, and Nature Protection; the Ministry of Environment and Traffic of the state of Baden- Württemberg; the Ministry of Environment of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia; and the MAIFOR Programme of the University of Mainz. The Japanese Interphone study was fully funded by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan. Funding in New Zealand for this project was provided by the Health Research Council of New Zealand, the Cancer Society of New Zealand, the Wellington Medical Research Foundation, the Hawke’s Bay Medical Research Foundation and the Waikato Medical Research Foundation. The Swedish centre was additionally supported by the Swedish Research Council and the Swedish Cancer Society. The UK North study received additional funding from the Health and Safety Executive, the Department of Health, the Mobile Telecommunications, Health and Research (MTHR) program, and the Scottish Executive. The University of Leeds received some financial support on behalf of the 4 centres of the ‘UK North Study’ from the UK Network Operators (O2, Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone, ‘3’) under legal signed contractual agreements which guaranteed complete independence for the scientific investigators. The Southeast England Centre wishes to acknowledge additional funding from the Mobile Telecommunications, Health and Research (MTHR) programme.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Leimen, Germany (retired); formerly: Unit of Environmental Epidemiology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany

    Brigitte Schlehofer

  2. Institute of Medical Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics, University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany

    Maria Blettner

  3. International Agency for Research On Cancer (IARC/WHO), Environment and Lifestyle Epidemiology Branch, Lyon, France

    Monika Moissonnier, Isabelle Deltour & Joachim Schüz

  4. Cancer Epidemiology Division, Cancer Council Victoria, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Graham G. Giles

  5. Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia

    Graham G. Giles

  6. Precision Medicine, School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia

    Graham G. Giles

  7. School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Bruce Armstrong

  8. University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada

    Jack Siemiatycki

  9. Institut National de La Recherche Scientifique (INRS), Laval, Canada

    Marie-Elise Parent

  10. McLaughlin Centre for Population Health Risk Assessment, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

    Daniel Krewski

  11. Center for Surgery and Cancer, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Christoffer Johansen

  12. Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland

    Anssi Auvinen

  13. STUK Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, Environmental Radiation Surveillance, Helsinki, Finland

    Anssi Auvinen & Anna Lahkola

  14. Université Lyon 1, IFSTTAR, UMRESTTE, Bron, France

    Martine Hours

  15. Unit for Health Promotion Research, Department of Public Health, and Hospital South West Jutland Esbjerg, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

    Gabriele Berg-Beckhoff

  16. Cancer & Radiation Epidemiology Unit, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology & Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, Israel

    Siegal Sadetzki

  17. Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Siegal Sadetzki

  18. Ministry of Health, Jerusalem, Israel

    Siegal Sadetzki

  19. Department of Oncology and Molecular Medicine, Istituto Superiore Di Sanità, Rome, Italy

    Susanna Lagorio

  20. Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

    Toru Takebayashi

  21. Department of Public Health, Tokyo Women’s Medical University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

    Naohito Yamaguchi

  22. School of Population Health, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Alistair Woodward

  23. Population and Global Health, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia

    Angus Cook

  24. National Institute of Occupational Health, Oslo, Norway

    Tore Tynes

  25. Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority, Østerås; The Cancer Registry of Norway, Oslo, Norway

    Lars Klaboe

  26. Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    Maria Feychting

  27. School of Medicine, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

    Richard Feltbower

  28. Institute of Cancer Research, Sutton, UK

    Anthony Swerdlow & Minouk Schoemaker

  29. Barcelona Institute of Global Health (ISGlobal), Barcelona, Spain

    Elisabeth Cardis

  30. University Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain

    Elisabeth Cardis

  31. CIBER Epidemiologia Y Salud Pública, Madrid, Spain

    Elisabeth Cardis

Authors
  1. Brigitte Schlehofer
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  2. Maria Blettner
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  3. Monika Moissonnier
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  4. Isabelle Deltour
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  5. Graham G. Giles
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  6. Bruce Armstrong
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  7. Jack Siemiatycki
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  8. Marie-Elise Parent
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  9. Daniel Krewski
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  10. Christoffer Johansen
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  11. Anssi Auvinen
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  12. Anna Lahkola
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  13. Martine Hours
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  14. Gabriele Berg-Beckhoff
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  15. Siegal Sadetzki
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  16. Susanna Lagorio
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  17. Toru Takebayashi
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  18. Naohito Yamaguchi
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  19. Alistair Woodward
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  20. Angus Cook
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  21. Tore Tynes
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  22. Lars Klaboe
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  23. Maria Feychting
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  24. Richard Feltbower
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  25. Anthony Swerdlow
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  26. Minouk Schoemaker
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  27. Elisabeth Cardis
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  28. Joachim Schüz
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Contributions

BS, MB and JS designed and jointly led the present project and drafted the manuscript. MM carried out the analysis. All other authors were also involved in the INTERPHONE study, its design, conduct and interpretation. EC was the overall coordinator of the INTERPHONE project. All authors reviewed and approved the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Joachim Schüz.

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IARC Ethical approval was granted on 25 November 1999 (No ERC-Project 99–010). All study centers obtained national ethical approval.

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All participants of the INTERPHONE study filled in written informed consent.

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All authors critically reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Schlehofer, B., Blettner, M., Moissonnier, M. et al. Association of allergic diseases and epilepsy with risk of glioma, meningioma and acoustic neuroma: results from the INTERPHONE international case–control study. Eur J Epidemiol 37, 503–512 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-022-00843-y

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