Smoking, alcohol consumption, and cancer: A mendelian randomisation study in UK Biobank and international genetic consortia participants.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Smoking is a well-established cause of lung cancer and there is strong evidence that smoking also increases the risk of several other cancers. Alcohol consumption has been inconsistently associated with cancer risk in observational studies. This mendelian randomisation (MR) study sought to investigate associations in support of a causal relationship between smoking and alcohol consumption and 19 site-specific cancers.

Methods and findings

We used summary-level data for genetic variants associated with smoking initiation (ever smoked regularly) and alcohol consumption, and the corresponding associations with lung, breast, ovarian, and prostate cancer from genome-wide association studies consortia, including participants of European ancestry. We additionally estimat

SUBMITTER: Larsson SC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7377370 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature