Tea consumption and risk of digestive tract tumors: a two-sample Mendelian randomization study

Abstract

Abstract Background-Tea intake is thought to have anti-cancer effects, but it is unclear whether tea intake has a causal association with digestive tract cancers. Our goal in conducting this two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) study was to learn more about the possible causal link between tea consumption and digestive system tumors. Materials and Methods-At the genome-wide significance level (P < 5×10 − 8), thirty-two independent single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) related to tea consumption were adopted as instrumental variables. The UK Biobank Consortium provided the summary statistics for digestive tract cancer. We employed inverse variance weighted (IVW) as our primary method, and we conducted a set of sensitivity analyses—including MR Pleiotropy RESidual Sum and Outlier, MR-Egger, and weighted median—to identify heterogeneity and pleiotropy. Results-The IVW analysis method showed that genetic liability to tea intake was associated with increased risk of liver and intrahepatic biliary cancer[OR = 1.0019, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.0003–1.0035, P = 0.020]. There was no statistically significant link between tea drinking and the development of other digestive tract cancers. [Esophagus cancer: OR = 1.0000, 95% CI = 0.9975–1.0025, P = 0.978; Stomach cancer: OR = 1.0007, 95% CI = 0.9982–1.0032, P = 0. 584; Pancreas cancer: OR = 0.9994, 95% CI = 0.9972–1.0016, P = 0.604; Small intestine cancer: OR = 0.9992, 95% CI = 0.9979–1.0006, P = 0. 281; colon cancer: OR = 0.9989, 95% CI = 0.99333–1.00446, P = 0. 707; Rectal cancer: OR = 1.0005, 95% CI = 0.9969–1.0042, P = 0. 767] was noted. Conclusion-This Mendelian randomization study indicates that tea intake might be a factor in an increased risk of liver and intrahepatic biliary cancer, whereas there was no evidence of a genetically predicted causal link between drinking tea and developing other malignancies of the digestive tract.