Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutritional Epidemiology
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2024.1428844
This article is part of the Research Topic Link Between Diet, Obesity, and Cancer View all articles

Causal association of dietary factors with five common cancers: univariate and multivariate Mendelian randomization studies

Provisionally accepted
Lin Yang Lin Yang 1Li Wang Li Wang 2Er-hao Bao Er-hao Bao 3Jiahao Wang Jiahao Wang 3Pingyu Zhu Pingyu Zhu 3*
  • 1 Department of Urology, Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong, China
  • 2 Department of Urology, Lanzhou University Second Hospital, Lanzhou, Gansu Province, China
  • 3 Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong, Sichuan Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Daily dietary habits are closely related to human health, and long-term unhealthy dietary intake, such as excessive consumption of alcohol and pickled foods, may promote the development of cancers. However, comprehensive research on the causal relationship between dietary habits and cancer is lacking. Therefore, this study aimed to reveal the potential causal link between dietary risk factors and the prognosis of cancer-related to genetic susceptibility.Methods: GWAS (Genome-Wide Association Studies) summary data on dietary habits and five common types of cancer and their pathological subtypes were obtained from the UK Biobank and various cancer association consortia. A univariable two-sample Mendelian randomization (UVMR) and FDR correction analysis was conducted to explore the causal relationships between 45 dietary habits and five common types of cancer and their histopathological subtypes. In addition, multivariable Mendelian randomization analysis (MVMR) was performed to adjust for traditional risk factors for dietary habits, and the direct or indirect effects of diet on cancer were evaluated. Finally, the prognostic impact of selected instrumental variables on cancer was analyzed using an online data platform.In the UVMR analysis, four dietary habits were identified as risk factors for cancer, while five dietary habits were identified as protective factors. Among the latter, one dietary habit showed a significant association with cancer even after FDR correction, indicating a potential causal relationship. The MVMR analysis revealed that weekly beer and cider intake, may act as an independent risk factor for cancer development. Other causal associations between dietary habits and cancer risk may be mediated by intermediate factors. In the prognostic analysis, the SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms) of average weekly beer and cider intake were set as independent risk factors and were found to significantly impact overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) in lung cancer.This causal relationship study supports the notion that adjusting daily dietary habits and implementing specific dietary interventions may decrease the risk of cancer.

    Keywords: consumption, Dietary habit, Cancer, Mendelian randomization, prognostic impact 1

    Received: 07 May 2024; Accepted: 15 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Yang, Wang, Bao, Wang and Zhu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Pingyu Zhu, Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong, Sichuan Province, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.