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. 2021 Jan 15;148(2):307-319.
doi: 10.1002/ijc.33206. Epub 2020 Aug 7.

Mendelian randomization analyses suggest a role for cholesterol in the development of endometrial cancer

Pik-Fang Kho  1   2 Frederic Amant  3 Daniela Annibali  3 Katie Ashton  4   5   6 John Attia  4   7 Paul L Auer  8   9 Matthias W Beckmann  10 Amanda Black  11 Louise Brinton  11 Daniel D Buchanan  12   13   14   15 Stephen J Chanock  16 Chu Chen  17 Maxine M Chen  18 Timothy H T Cheng  19 Linda S Cook  20   21 Marta Crous-Bous  18   22 Kamila Czene  23 Immaculata De Vivo  18   22 Joe Dennis  24 Thilo Dörk  25 Sean C Dowdy  26 Alison M Dunning  27 Matthias Dürst  28 Douglas F Easton  24   27 Arif B Ekici  29 Peter A Fasching  10   30 Brooke L Fridley  31 Christine M Friedenreich  21 Montserrat García-Closas  16 Mia M Gaudet  32 Graham G Giles  13   33   34 Ellen L Goode  35 Maggie Gorman  19 Christopher A Haiman  36 Per Hall  23   37 Susan E Hankinson  22   38 Alexander Hein  10 Peter Hillemanns  25 Shirley Hodgson  39 Erling A Hoivik  40   41 Elizabeth G Holliday  4   7 David J Hunter  18   42   43 Angela Jones  19 Peter Kraft  18   42 Camilla Krakstad  40   41 Diether Lambrechts  44   45 Loic Le Marchand  46 Xiaolin Liang  47 Annika Lindblom  48   49 Jolanta Lissowska  50 Jirong Long  51 Lingeng Lu  52 Anthony M Magliocco  53 Lynn Martin  54 Mark McEvoy  7 Roger L Milne  13   33   34 Miriam Mints  55 Rami Nassir  56 Geoffrey Otton  57 Claire Palles  19 Loreall Pooler  36 Tony Proietto  57 Timothy R Rebbeck  58   59 Stefan P Renner  60 Harvey A Risch  52 Matthias Rübner  60 Ingo Runnebaum  28 Carlotta Sacerdote  61   62 Gloria E Sarto  63 Fredrick Schumacher  64 Rodney J Scott  4   6   65 V Wendy Setiawan  36 Mitul Shah  27 Xin Sheng  36 Xiao-Ou Shu  51 Melissa C Southey  12   33   34 Emma Tham  48   66 Ian Tomlinson  19   54 Jone Trovik  40   41 Constance Turman  18 Jonathan P Tyrer  27 David Van Den Berg  36 Zhaoming Wang  11 Nicolas Wentzensen  11 Lucy Xia  36 Yong-Bing Xiang  67 Hannah P Yang  11 Herbert Yu  46 Wei Zheng  51 Penelope M Webb  68 Deborah J Thompson  24 Amanda B Spurdle  1 Dylan M Glubb  1 Tracy A O'Mara  1
Affiliations

Mendelian randomization analyses suggest a role for cholesterol in the development of endometrial cancer

Pik-Fang Kho et al. Int J Cancer. .

Abstract

Blood lipids have been associated with the development of a range of cancers, including breast, lung and colorectal cancer. For endometrial cancer, observational studies have reported inconsistent associations between blood lipids and cancer risk. To reduce biases from unmeasured confounding, we performed a bidirectional, two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis to investigate the relationship between levels of three blood lipids (low-density lipoprotein [LDL] and high-density lipoprotein [HDL] cholesterol, and triglycerides) and endometrial cancer risk. Genetic variants associated with each of these blood lipid levels (P < 5 × 10-8 ) were identified as instrumental variables, and assessed using genome-wide association study data from the Endometrial Cancer Association Consortium (12 906 cases and 108 979 controls) and the Global Lipids Genetic Consortium (n = 188 578). Mendelian randomization analyses found genetically raised LDL cholesterol levels to be associated with lower risks of endometrial cancer of all histologies combined, and of endometrioid and non-endometrioid subtypes. Conversely, higher genetically predicted HDL cholesterol levels were associated with increased risk of non-endometrioid endometrial cancer. After accounting for the potential confounding role of obesity (as measured by genetic variants associated with body mass index), the association between genetically predicted increased LDL cholesterol levels and lower endometrial cancer risk remained significant, especially for non-endometrioid endometrial cancer. There was no evidence to support a role for triglycerides in endometrial cancer development. Our study supports a role for LDL and HDL cholesterol in the development of non-endometrioid endometrial cancer. Further studies are required to understand the mechanisms underlying these findings.

Keywords: HDL cholesterol; LDL cholesterol; Mendelian randomization; endometrial cancer risk; triglycerides.

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Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Peter A. Fasching reports personal fees from Novartis, grants from Biontech, personal fees from Roche, personal fees from Pfizer, personal fees from Daiichi-Sankyo, personal fees from Astra Zeneca, personal fees from Eisai, personal fees from Merck Sharp & Dohme, grants from Cepheid, personal fees from Lilly, personal fees from Pierre Fabre, personal fees from Seattle Genetics, during the conduct of the study. Deborah J. Thompson is an employee of Genomics plc. The research described in this article was completed before her employment at Genomics plc. All other authors declare no potential conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Effects of blood lipid trait instrumental variables on endometrial cancer risk. Figure showed the Generalized Summary-data based Mendelian Randomization (GSMR) results for (A) low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-endometrial cancer (all histologies combined), (B) LDL-endometrioid histology, (C) LDL-non-endometrioid histologies, (D) high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-endometrial cancer (all histologies combined), (E) HDL-endometrioid histology, (F) HDL-non-endometrioid histology, (G) triglycerides-endometrial cancer (all histologies combined), (H) Triglycerides-endometrioid histology and (I) triglycerides-non-endometrioid histologies. The effect of each genetic variant for lipid of interest is plotted against the effect for the same variant on endometrial cancer risk. Dashed lines represent GSMR estimates
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Relationships between low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, body mass index (BMI) and endometrioid endometrial cancer identified by previous, and current Mendelian randomization analysis. Red lines represent adverse effects, and green lines represent protective effects

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