title: Asthma and risk of lethal prostate cancer in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study.
abstract: Inflammation, and more generally, the immune response are thought to influence the development of prostate cancer. To determine the components of the immune response that are potentially contributory, we prospectively evaluated the association of immune-mediated conditions, asthma and hayfever, with lethal prostate cancer risk in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. We included 47,880 men aged 40-75 years with no prior cancer diagnosis. On the baseline questionnaire in 1986, the men reported diagnoses of asthma and hayfever and year of onset. On the follow-up questionnaires, they reported new asthma and prostate cancer diagnoses. We used Cox proportional hazards regression to estimate relative risks (RRs). In total, 9.2% reported ever having been diagnosed with asthma. In all, 25.3% reported a hayfever diagnosis at baseline. During 995,176 person-years of follow-up by 2012, we confirmed 798 lethal prostate cancer cases (diagnosed with distant metastases, progressed to distant metastasis or died of prostate cancer [N = 625]). Ever having a diagnosis of asthma was inversely associated with risk of lethal (RR = 0.71, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.51-1.00) and fatal (RR = 0.64, 95% CI = 0.42-0.96) disease. Hayfever with onset in the distant past was possibly weakly positively associated with risk of lethal (RR = 1.10, 95% CI = 0.92-1.33) and fatal (RR = 1.12, 95% CI = 0.91-1.37) disease. Men who were ever diagnosed with asthma were less likely to develop lethal and fatal prostate cancer. Our findings may lead to testable hypotheses about specific immune profiles in the etiology of lethal prostate cancer.
authors: Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD.|Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, MD.|Department of Urology, and the James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD.
authors: Elizabeth A
authors: EA
authors: Platz
authors: Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, MD.|Department of Urology, and the James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD.|Department of Immunology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD.
authors: Charles G
authors: CG
authors: Drake
authors: Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA.|Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA.
authors: Kathryn M
authors: KM
authors: Wilson
authors: Division of Public Health Sciences, Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, St. Louis, MO.|The Siteman Cancer Center, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO.
authors: Siobhan
authors: S
authors: Sutcliffe
authors: Department of Urology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.
authors: Stacey A
authors: SA
authors: Kenfield
authors: Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA.|Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA.
authors: Lorelei A
authors: LA
authors: Mucci
authors: Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA.|Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA.|Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA.
authors: Meir J
authors: MJ
authors: Stampfer
authors: Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA.|Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA.|Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA.
authors: Walter C
authors: WC
authors: Willett
authors: Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA.|Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA.|Department of Emergency Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
authors: Carlos A
authors: CA
authors: Camargo
authors: Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA.|Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA.|Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA.
authors: Edward
authors: E
authors: Giovannucci
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001249:Asthma / Q000097:blood / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006282:Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen / Q000097:blood; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D006255:Rhinitis, Allergic, Seasonal / Q000097:blood / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D012306:Risk; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
chemical_list: D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen
keywords: asthma; hayfever; men; prostate cancer; risk
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