Repository logo
 

Evidence of a Causal Association Between Cancer and Alzheimer's Disease: a Mendelian Randomization Analysis.

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Seddighi, Sahba 
Houck, Alexander L 
Rowe, James B 
Pharoah, Paul DP 

Abstract

While limited observational evidence suggests that cancer survivors have a decreased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD), and vice versa, it is not clear whether this relationship is causal. Using a Mendelian randomization approach that provides evidence of causality, we found that genetically predicted lung cancer (OR 0.91, 95% CI 0.84-0.99, p = 0.019), leukemia (OR 0.98, 95% CI 0.96-0.995, p = 0.012), and breast cancer (OR 0.94, 95% CI 0.89-0.99, p = 0.028) were associated with 9.0%, 2.4%, and 5.9% lower odds of AD, respectively, per 1-unit higher log odds of cancer. When genetic predictors of all cancers were pooled, cancer was associated with 2.5% lower odds of AD (OR 0.98, 95% CI 0.96-0.988, p = 0.00027) per 1-unit higher log odds of cancer. Finally, genetically predicted smoking-related cancers showed a more robust inverse association with AD than non-smoking related cancers (OR 0.95, 95% CI 0.92-0.98, p = 0.0026, vs. OR 0.98, 95% CI 0.97-0.995, p = 0.0091).

Description

Keywords

Alzheimer Disease, Breast Neoplasms, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Leukemia, Lung Neoplasms, Male, Mendelian Randomization Analysis, Neoplasms, Observational Studies as Topic, Odds Ratio, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Smoking

Journal Title

Scientific Reports

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2045-2322
2045-2322

Volume Title

9

Publisher

Nature Publishing Group
Sponsorship
Wellcome Trust (103838/Z/14/Z)
This project was supported by a Gates Cambridge Trust grant to SS (OPP1144). JBR is supported by the Wellcome Trust (103838). PDPP has infrastructural support from Cambridge University and Cancer Research UK.