New Research: Asthma and Allergies May Spike Your Risk of This Cancer

On their own, asthma and allergies can cause serious discomfort, or worse: Dangerous respiratory complications resulting from inflammation of the airways. Now, new research suggests that there’s another, more surprising, way that these two conditions can affect your health: They’re associated with a higher risk of one particular cancer type.

According to a September 2024 study led by medical researchers at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine and published in the journal Archives of Dermatological Research, having asthma and chronic hay fever allergies to environmental allergens such as pollen, may mean you’re more likely to develop skin cancer.

Though not everyone who has asthma also has chronic allergies and vice versa, experts say that the two conditions do often go hand-in-hand. The study notes that those who suffer from asthma may find that their symptoms “worsen after allergen exposure.”

To further probe the connection between these respiratory illnesses and their effect on cancer risk, the researchers looked at the health data of 16,277 adult participants of the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which was collected from 1988 to 1994. They used a “survey-weighted regression to compare the nationwide prevalence of skin cancer among participants with or without a history of asthma or hay fever.”

Within the subject pool, the age-adjusted prevalence of skin cancer was 7.2%, which the research team notes is roughly comparable to national estimates. After isolating cancer risk levels among those with both respiratory illnesses, one respiratory illnesses, and no respiratory illnesses, the team learned that having both asthma and hay fever allergies seemed to spike skin cancer risk, while having only one of the two conditions did not.

“Skin cancer prevalence was higher among participants who had asthma with hay fever but not among participants with asthma only or hay fever only. Similarly, skin cancer prevalence was higher for those with asthma and positive pollen allergen skin prick testing (SPT), but not for those with hay fever and positive pollen SPT,” the study authors write.

They add that no association was found between skin cancer and the occasional incidence of wheezing triggered by pollen, if chronic allergies or asthma were absent. Scientists hypothesize that this is because chronic inflammation caused by asthma and chronic allergies can contribute to the development of cancer.

This is not the first study to link respiratory conditions with a higher risk of cancer. A 2023 study published in the journal Cancer Medicine found that people who have been diagnosed with asthma are 36% more likely to be diagnosed with cancer. In particular, these individuals were at higher risk for lung cancer, blood cancer, melanoma, kidney cancer, and ovarian cancer.

However, that team also noted that when asthma was treated with inhaled steroids, this appeared to have a protective effect against cancer. “In analyses of specific cancer types, cancer risk was elevated for nine of 13 cancers in asthma patients without inhaled steroid use but only for two of 13 cancers in asthma patients with inhaled steroid use, suggesting a protective effect of inhaled steroid use on cancer,” the study authors wrote.

If you have been diagnosed with asthma, allergies, or other chronic respiratory conditions, be sure to discuss this with your doctor. Though everyone stands to benefit from following routine cancer screening recommendations—including but not limited to annual skin cancer checks—your doctor may wish to take additional measures to ensure adequate screening in this event.

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