Association of smoking, alcohol, and coffee consumption with the risk of ovarian cancer and prognosis: a mendelian randomization study

Currently, the association between smoking, alcohol, and coffee intake and the risk of ovarian cancer (OC) remains conflicting. Researchers used a two-sample mendelian randomization (MR) method to evaluate the association of smoking, drinking and coffee consumption with the risk of ovarian cancer and prognosis.
Five risk factors related to lifestyles (cigarettes per day, smoking initiation, smoking cessation, alcohol consumption and coffee consumption) were chosen from the Genome-Wide Association Study, and 28, 105, 10, 36 and 36 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were obtained as instrumental variables (IVs).
The two-sample MR analysis supported the causal association of genetically predicted smoking initiation (OR: 1.15 per SD, 95%CI: 1.02–1.29, P = 0.027) and coffee consumption (OR: 1.40 per 50% increase, 95%CI: 1.02–1.93, P = 0.040) with the risk of ovarian cancer, but not cigarettes per day, smoking cessation, and alcohol consumption. Subgroup analysis based on histological subtypes revealed a positive genetical predictive association between coffee consumption and endometrioid ovarian cancer (OR: 3.01, 95%CI: 1.50–6.04, P = 0.002). Several smoking initiation-related SNPs (rs7585579, rs7929518, rs2378662, rs10001365, rs11078713, rs7929518, and rs62098013), and coffee consumption-related SNPs (rs4410790, and rs1057868) were all associated with overall survival and cancer-specific survival in OC.
The findings provide the evidence for a favourable causal association of genetically predicted smoking initiation and coffee consumption with ovarian cancer risk, and coffee consumption is linked to a greater risk of endometrioid ovarian cancer. There was no association with genetically predicted alcohol consumption.
Source: Liu S, Feng S, Du F, Zhang K, Shen Y. Association of smoking, alcohol, and coffee consumption with the risk of ovarian cancer and prognosis: a mendelian randomization study. BMC Cancer. 2023 Mar 20;23(1):256.