title: History of chickenpox in glioma risk: a report from the glioma international case-control study (GICC).
abstract: Varicella zoster virus (VZV) is a neurotropic α-herpesvirus that causes chickenpox and establishes life-long latency in the cranial nerve and dorsal root ganglia of the host. To date, VZV is the only virus consistently reported to have an inverse association with glioma. The Glioma International Case-Control Study (GICC) is a large, multisite consortium with data on 4533 cases and 4171 controls collected across five countries. Here, we utilized the GICC data to confirm the previously reported associations between history of chickenpox and glioma risk in one of the largest studies to date on this topic. Using two-stage random-effects restricted maximum likelihood modeling, we found that a positive history of chickenpox was associated with a 21% lower glioma risk, adjusting for age and sex (95% confidence intervals (CI): 0.65-0.96). Furthermore, the protective effect of chickenpox was stronger for high-grade gliomas. Our study provides additional evidence that the observed protective effect of chickenpox against glioma is unlikely to be coincidental. Future studies, including meta-analyses of the literature and investigations of the potential biological mechanism, are warranted.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology-Oncology, Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.
authors.forename: E Susan
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Amirian
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology-Oncology, Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.
authors.forename: Michael E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Scheurer
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology-Oncology, Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.
authors.forename: Renke
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, California.
authors.forename: Margaret R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Wrensch
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology-Oncology, Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.
authors.forename: Georgina N
authors.initials: GN
authors.lastname: Armstrong
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lachance
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York.
authors.forename: Sara H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Olson
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology-Oncology, Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.
authors.forename: Ching C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Lau
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut.|Department of Neurosurgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Elizabeth B
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Claus
authors.affiliation: Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio.
authors.forename: Jill S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Barnholtz-Sloan
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Georgia State University School of Public Health, Atlanta, Georgia.|Department of Community and Family Medicine, Cancer Control and Prevention Program, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Dora
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Il'yasova
authors.affiliation: Department of Community and Family Medicine, Cancer Control and Prevention Program, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Joellen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schildkraut
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Francis
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ali-Osman
authors.affiliation: Cancer and Radiation Epidemiology Unit, Gertner Institute, Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel.|Sackler School of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: Siegal
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sadetzki
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota.
authors.forename: Robert B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Jenkins
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York.
authors.forename: Jonine L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Bernstein
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, NorthShore University HealthSystem, Evanston, Illinois.
authors.forename: Ryan T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Merrell
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Services, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: Faith G
authors.initials: FG
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Preventive Medicine, The University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California.
authors.forename: Rose
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas.
authors.forename: Sanjay
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shete
authors.affiliation: Department of Community and Family Medicine, Department of Genetics, Norris Cotton Cancer Center, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire.
authors.forename: Christopher I
authors.initials: CI
authors.lastname: Amos
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Sciences Oncology, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden.
authors.forename: Beatrice S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Melin
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology-Oncology, Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.
authors.forename: Melissa L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Bondy
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002644:Chickenpox / Q000150:complications* / Q000821:virology; D005260:Female; D005910:Glioma / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011159:Population Surveillance; D012306:Risk; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Brain tumor; chickenpox; glioma; shingles