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The following is a summary of “Causal inference between pernicious anemia and cancers: a bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis,” published in the May 2024 issue of Oncology by Che et al.
Observational studies have explored the association between pernicious anemia (PA) and various cancers, yielding inconsistent results except for a well-established link with gastric cancer. This study aims to elucidate the potential causal relationships between PA and different cancers using a bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis.
This study examined PA and 20 site-specific cancers utilizing genetic summary data from the European FinnGen project. The bidirectional two-sample MR design primarily employed the inverse variance weighting (IVW) method to assess the causal relationships between PA and cancer risk. The Benjamini-Hochberg correction was applied to mitigate bias from multiple tests.
The analysis revealed causal relationships between PA and several cancers, specifically gastric cancer, prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and malignant melanoma of the skin. Additionally, a reverse causal relationship was identified between prostate cancer or gastric cancer and PA (P < 0.05). Post Benjamini-Hochberg correction, the causal link between PA and gastric or prostate cancer remained significant (P’ < 0.05), while the associations with testicular cancer and malignant melanoma of the skin became suggestive (P’> 0.05). A reverse causal relationship persisted between gastric cancer and PA (P‘< 0.05), whereas the reverse association with prostate cancer remained implied (P’> 0.05). Furthermore, MR-Egger and MR-PRESSO tests indicated no significant horizontal pleiotropy.
In conclusion, this study provides genetic evidence suggesting that PA is associated with an increased risk of testicular cancer, prostate cancer, gastric cancer, and malignant melanoma of the skin. These findings underscore the need for further research to confirm these associations and explore the underlying mechanisms.
Source: bmccancer.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12885-024-12354-y