Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Apr 17;16(1):549.
doi: 10.1007/s12672-025-02317-5.

Association between type 2 diabetes and gastric cancer in Europeans and East Asians based on two sample Mendelian randomization

Xiaoyan Wang #  1 , Luyu Zhu #  1 , Ziyan Liu #  2 , Changfeng Man  2 , Zhenjun Gao  3 , Dandan Gong  4 , Yu Fan  5
Affiliations

Association between type 2 diabetes and gastric cancer in Europeans and East Asians based on two sample Mendelian randomization

Xiaoyan Wang et al. Discov Oncol. .

Abstract

Background: There are conflicting results and potential methodological flaws of previous observational studies on the association between T2DM and the risk of gastric cancer.This two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) study aimed to investigate the causal association between type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and gastric cancer in different ethnic populations.

Methods: Exposure variables were obtained from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of T2DM in European population (finn-b-E4_DM2; 32,469) and East Asian population (ebi-a-GCST90018706; n = 45,383). Concomitantly, we utilized summary-level genetic data for gastric cancer in Europeans population (ebi-a-GCST90018849; n = 1029) and East Asians population (ebi-a-GCST90018629; n = 7,921) as the outcome measure. Causal associations between T2DM and gastric cancer in the same ethnic groups were primarily determined using the inverse-variance weighted (IVW) method.

Results: A total of 62 and 106 single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with T2DM were selected for in Europeans and East Asians, respectively. The IVW analysis indicated that there was a significant inverse association between T2DM and gastric cancer in Europeans (odds ratio [OR] 0.917; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.855-0.984) and East Asians (OR 0.881; 95% CI 0.845-0.918). The weighted median and Weighted mode regression models produced similar results. MR-Egger regression analysis suggested the absence of horizontal pleiotropy. The leave-out sensitivity analysis demonstrated that the results were stable.

Conclusion: This MR study revealed that T2DM may be associated with a reduced risk of gastric cancer in European and East Asian population.

Keywords: Gastric cancer; Inverse association; Mendelian randomization; Risk; Type 2 diabetes mellitus.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: Not applicable. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Scatter plot of the two-sample MR analysis showing the causal effect of T2DM on gastric cancer in Europeans (A) and East Asians (B) population
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Forest plot of the individual SNPs and combined effect of T2DM on gastric cancer in Europeans population
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Forest plot of the individual SNPs and combined effect of T2DM on gastric cancer in East Asians population
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Funnel plots of the MR analysis showing the causal effect of T2DM on gastric cancer in Europeans (A) and East Asians (B) population
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Siegel RL, Miller KD, Wagle NS, Jemal A. Cancer statistics, 2023. CA Cancer J Clin. 2023;73(1):17–48. 10.3322/caac.21763. - PubMed
    1. Yang WJ, Zhao HP, Yu Y, Wang JH, Guo L, Liu JY, et al. Updates on global epidemiology, risk and prognostic factors of gastric cancer. World J Gastroenterol. 2023;29(16):2452–68. 10.3748/wjg.v29.i16.2452. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ilic M, Ilic I. Epidemiology of stomach cancer. World J Gastroenterol. 2022;28(12):1187–203. 10.3748/wjg.v28.i12.1187. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Aqel A, Khader Y, Arqoub K, Nimri O. Survival rate of gastric cancer patients in jordan: secondary data analysis. JMIR Public Health Surveill. 2022;6(2): e14359. 10.2196/14359. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ahmad E, Lim S, Lamptey R, Webb DR, Davies MJ. Type 2 diabetes. Lancet. 2022;400(10365):1803–20. 10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01655-5. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources