title: Family and personal medical history and risk of meningioma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Little is known about the epidemiology of meningioma, the most frequently reported primary brain tumor in the US. The authors undertook a case-control study to examine the relationship between family and personal medical history and meningioma risk.
  
  
  METHODS
  The authors compared the personal and first-degree family histories of 1124 patients with meningioma (age range 20-79 years) in Connecticut, Massachusetts, North Carolina, the San Francisco Bay Area, and 8 Houston counties between May 1, 2006, and February 26, 2010, and the histories of 1000 control individuals who were frequency-matched for age, sex, and geography.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The patients were more likely than the controls to report a first-degree family history of meningioma (OR 4.4, 95% CI 1.6-11.5), and there was an even stronger association in younger cases. The patients were less likely than controls to report immune conditions including allergy (OR 0.6, 95% CI 0.5-0.7) but were more likely to report a history of thyroid cancer (OR 4.7, 95% CI 1.02-21.5) or leukemia (OR 5.4, 95% CI 1.2-24.1) (most after radiotherapy). Among women, patients were more likely than controls to report hormonally related conditions--uterine fibroid tumors (OR 1.2, 95% CI 1.0-1.5), endometriosis (OR 1.5, 95% CI 1.5-2.1), and breast cancer (OR 1.4, 95% CI 0.8-2.3).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The influence of genetics, the immune system, and radiation near the head on meningioma risk is suggested in the authors' findings; the role of hormones is intriguing but requires further study.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8034, USA. elizabeth.claus@yale.edu
authors.forename: Elizabeth B
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Claus
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Calvocoressi
authors.forename: Melissa L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Bondy
authors.forename: Joellen M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Schildkraut
authors.forename: Joseph L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Wiemels
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wrensch
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D005843:Geography; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008487:Medical History Taking / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008577:Meningeal Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000235:genetics; D008579:Meningioma / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000235:genetics; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult