Assessing the role of cortisol in cancer: a wide-ranged Mendelian randomisation study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Cortisol's immunosuppressive, obesogenic, and hyperglycaemic effects suggest that it may play a role in cancer development. However, whether cortisol increases cancer risk is not known. We investigated the potential causal association between plasma cortisol and risk of overall and common site-specific cancers using Mendelian randomisation.

Methods

Three genetic variants associated with morning plasma cortisol levels at the genome-wide significance level (P < 5 × 10^-8) in the Cortisol Network consortium were used as genetic instruments. Summary-level genome-wide association study data for the cancer outcomes were obtained from large-scale cancer consortia, the UK Biobank, and the FinnGen consortium. Two-sample Mendelian randomisation analyses were perfo

SUBMITTER: Larsson SC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8476513 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature