A multivariable Mendelian randomization analysis investigating smoking and alcohol consumption in oral and oropharyngeal cancer

Mark Gormley (), Tom Dudding, Eleanor Sanderson, Richard M. Martin, Steven Thomas, Jessica Tyrrell, Andrew R. Ness, Paul Brennan, Marcus Munafò, Miranda Pring, Stefania Boccia, Andrew F. Olshan, Brenda Diergaarde, Rayjean J. Hung, Geoffrey Liu, George Davey Smith and Rebecca C. Richmond
Additional contact information
Mark Gormley: University of Bristol
Tom Dudding: University of Bristol
Eleanor Sanderson: University of Bristol
Richard M. Martin: University of Bristol
Steven Thomas: University of Bristol
Jessica Tyrrell: University of Exeter Medical School
Andrew R. Ness: University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust National Institute for Health Research Bristol Biomedical Research Centre, University of Bristol
Paul Brennan: Genetic Epidemiology Group, World Health Organization, International Agency for Research on Cancer
Marcus Munafò: University of Bristol
Miranda Pring: University of Bristol
Stefania Boccia: Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
Andrew F. Olshan: University of North Carolina
Brenda Diergaarde: University of Pittsburgh, and UPMC Hillman Cancer Center
Rayjean J. Hung: Prosserman Centre for Population Health Research, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health System
Geoffrey Liu: University of Toronto
George Davey Smith: University of Bristol
Rebecca C. Richmond: University of Bristol

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract The independent effects of smoking and alcohol in head and neck cancer are not clear, given the strong association between these risk factors. Their apparent synergistic effect reported in previous observational studies may also underestimate independent effects. Here we report multivariable Mendelian randomization performed in a two-sample approach using summary data on 6,034 oral/oropharyngeal cases and 6,585 controls from a recent genome-wide association study. Our results demonstrate strong evidence for an independent causal effect of smoking on oral/oropharyngeal cancer (IVW OR 2.6, 95% CI = 1.7, 3.9 per standard deviation increase in lifetime smoking behaviour) and an independent causal effect of alcohol consumption when controlling for smoking (IVW OR 2.1, 95% CI = 1.1, 3.8 per standard deviation increase in drinks consumed per week). This suggests the possibility that the causal effect of alcohol may have been underestimated. However, the extent to which alcohol is modified by smoking requires further investigation.

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-19822-6 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-19822-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-19822-6

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().