Exploring the Common Genetic Underpinnings of Chronic Pulmonary Disease and Esophageal Carcinoma Susceptibility

Abstract

Background: Pulmonary diseases and esophageal cancer are highly prevalent conditions with rising incidence worldwide. Prior evidence supports shared environmental and behavioral factors, but less is known regarding potential genetic links underlying this comorbidity. This study aimed to elucidate the complex genetic relationship between chronic lung diseases and esophageal cancer risk. Methods: Linkage disequilibrium score regression assessed the genetic correlation between esophageal cancer and asthma, COPD, and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis leveraging extensive GWAS datasets. Pleiotropic analysis, gene-set enrichment, eQTL mapping, and mendelian randomization causality analyses were then conducted to identify specific shared genetic variants, enriched pathways, causal relationships and gene regulatory mechanisms connecting lung disease and cancer susceptibility. Results: Significant genetic correlations were observed between esophageal cancer and both COPD and asthma, but not idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Further analyses identified 13 pleiotropic loci and 6 shared genes including CHRNA4, ERBB3, and SMAD3, as well as pathways related to immune function. eQTL integration highlighted 53 genes like SOCS1, FGF2, and CHRNA5 with tissue-specific regulatory effects on disease risk. Bidirectional relationships were noted, whereby genetic predisposition to asthma and COPD increased esophageal cancer risk, while cancer liability reciprocally raised pulmonary fibrosis risk. Conclusions: These genomic analyses provide initial evidence that shared genetic factors may underpin the comorbidity between lung conditions and esophageal malignancy. The genes and pathways identified offer insights into biological mechanisms linking both diseases, aiding future screening, prevention and therapeutic efforts to mitigate this growing comorbidity burden.

Keywords: Esophageal cancer; Genetic correlation; Genome-wide association study; Mendelian randomization analysis; Pulmonary disease.

Figure 1

Flow diagram outlining the full analysis process.

Figure 2

Manhattan plot illustrating the pleiotropic loci between pulmonary diseases and esophageal cancer.

Figure 3

Tissue-specific analysis based on genome-wide pleiotropy using MAGMA.

Figure 4

Expression profiles of pleiotropic eQTL genes across different tissues.

Figure 5

Tissue-specific enrichment analysis based on pleiotropic eQTL genes.

Figure 6

(A) S-LDSC enrichment analysis identifies tissues with significant heritability enrichment between pulmonary diseases and esophageal cancer. (B) S-LDSC enrichment analysis identifies immune cells with significant heritability enrichment between pulmonary diseases and esophageal cancer. The blue dashed line represents the significance threshold of 0.05.