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Open Access 01-12-2022 | Lung Cancer | Research article

Causal relationship between genetically predicted depression and cancer risk: a two-sample bi-directional mendelian randomization

Authors: Guang-Li Zhu, Cheng Xu, Kai-bin Yang, Si-Qi Tang, Ling-Long Tang, Lei Chen, Wen-Fei Li, Yan-Ping Mao, Jun Ma

Published in: BMC Cancer | Issue 1/2022

Abstract

Background

Depression has been reported to be associated with some types of cancer in observational studies. However, the direction and magnitude of the causal relationships between depression and different types of cancer remain unclear.

Methods

We performed the two-sample bi-directional mendelian randomization with the publicly available GWAS summary statistics to investigate the causal relationship between the genetically predicted depression and the risk of multiple types of cancers, including ovarian cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, glioma, pancreatic cancer, lymphoma, colorectal cancer, thyroid cancer, bladder cancer, and kidney cancer. The total sample size varies from 504,034 to 729,150. Causal estimate was calculated by inverse variance weighted method. We also performed additional sensitivity tests to evaluate the validity of the causal relationship.

Results

After correction for heterogeneity and horizontal pleiotropy, we only detected suggestive evidence for the causality of genetically predicted depression on breast cancer (OR = 1.09, 95% CI: 1.03–1.15, P = 0.0022). The causal effect of depression on breast cancer was consistent in direction and magnitude in the sensitivity analysis. No evidence of causal effects of depression on other types of cancer and reverse causality was detected.

Conclusions

The result of this study suggests a causative effect of genetically predicted depression on specific type of cancer. Our findings emphasize the importance of depression in the prevention and treatment of breast cancer.

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Title: Causal relationship between genetically predicted depression and cancer risk: a two-sample bi-directional mendelian randomization
Authors: Guang-Li Zhu
Cheng Xu
Kai-bin Yang
Si-Qi Tang
Ling-Long Tang
Lei Chen
Wen-Fei Li
Yan-Ping Mao
Jun Ma
Publication date: 01-12-2022
Publisher: BioMed Central
Keywords: Lung Cancer
Mood Disorders
Lung Cancer
Breast Cancer
Ovarian Cancer
Ovarian Cancer
Affective Disorder
Breast Cancer
Lung Cancer
Published in: BMC Cancer / Issue 1/2022
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2407
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-022-09457-9

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Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

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