Causal association of serum biomarkers with oral cavity and oropharyngeal cancer: a mendelian randomization study

Abstract

Background Observational epidemiological studies revealed that multiple serum biomarkers can be associated with the risk of oral and oropharyngeal cancer (OC/OPC). However, the causal relationship between them remains largely unknown. This study aimed to investigate the causal relationship between potential serum biomarkers and (OC/OPC). Methods A two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) approach was performed to assess the causal association of 10 serum biomarkers with the risk of OC / OPC. Summary data on OC/OPC were obtained from a GWAS meta-analysis that included 2497 cases and 2928 controls. The TwoSampleMR package in R was used to perform MR analyzes. Inverse-variance weighted (IVW), Weighted median and MR-Egger methods were used to assess causal effects. Results Suggestive associations with increased risk of C-reactive protein (CRP) (OR 1.52, 95% CI 1.14 to 2.02), using the IVW method. MR-Egger regression suggested that directional pleiotropy was unlikely to bias the result (P = 0.19). The findings were robust to sensitivity analyzes. The risk of OC/OPC was not associated with serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, total cholesterol, triglycerides, adiponectin, leptin, HbA1C and Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF 1). Conclusions This study supports that CRP was causally associated with an increased risk of oral and oropharyngeal cancer.