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Meta-Analysis
. 2023 Dec 9;23(1):987.
doi: 10.1186/s12903-023-03729-x.

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

Weixing Liu #  1 , Yue Liu #  1 , Pei Li  1 , Zhiyuan Wang  1 , Jia Chen  1 , Hui Liu  2 , Jin Ye  3
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

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

Weixing Liu et al. BMC Oral Health. .

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.

Keywords: C-reactive protein; Mendelian randomization; Oral cancer; Oropharyngeal cancer; Serum biomarkers.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
A schematic summary of the study design
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Scatter plot and Forest plot. a Scatter plot of the possible effects of C-reactive protein and the risk of oral cavity and pharyngeal cancer, with the slope of each line corresponding to the estimated MR effect per method; b Forest plot of the MR-based effect sizes of C-reactive protein exposure instruments on oral cavity and pharyngeal cancer. The horizontal red line represents the result of the MR-egger or IVW method. Note: SNP single-nucleotide polymorphism; IVW inverse variance weighted method
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Funnel plot and Leave-one-out plot. a: Funnel plot of SNPs associated with C-reactive protein and their risk of oral cavity and pharyngeal cancer. b: Leave-one-out of SNPs associated with C-reactive protein and their risk of oral cavity and pharyngeal cancer. The horizontal red line represents the result of all SNPs using the IVW method
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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