Casual effects of type 1 diabetes mellitus on site-specific digestive cancers: a Mendelian randomisation analysis

Despite several observational studies attempting to investigate the potential association between type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) and the risk of digestive cancers, the results remain controversial. The purpose of this study is to examine whether there is a causal relationship between T1DM and the risk of digestive cancers.

We conducted a Mendelian randomisation (MR) study to systematically investigate the effect of T1DM on six most prevalent types of digestive cancers (oesophageal cancer, stomach cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, biliary tract cancer, pancreatic cancer, and colorectal cancer). A total of 1,588,872 individuals were enrolled in this analysis, with 372,756 being the highest number for oesophageal cancer and 3,835 being the lowest for pancreatic cancer. Multiple MR methods were performed to evaluate the causal association of T1DM with the risk of six site-specific cancers using genome-wide association study summary data. Sensitivity analyses were also conducted to assess the robustness of the observed associations.

We selected 35 single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with T1DM as instrumental variables. Our findings indicate no significant effect of T1DM on the overall risk of oesophageal cancer (OR= 0.99992, 95% CI: 0.99979-1.00006, P= 0.2866), stomach cancer (OR=0.9298,95% CI: 0.92065-1.09466, P= 0.9298), hepatocellular carcinoma (OR= 0.99994,95% CI: 0.99987-1.00001, P= 0.1125), biliary tract cancer (OR=0.97348,95% CI: 0.8079-1.1729, P= 0.7775)), or pancreatic cancer (OR =1.01258, 95% CI: 0.96243-1.06533, P= 0.6294). However, we observed a causal association between T1DM and colorectal cancer (OR=1.000, 95% CI: 1.00045-1.0012, P<0.001), indicating that T1DM increases the risk of colorectal cancer. We also performed sensitivity analyses, which showed no heterogeneity or horizontal pleiotropy. For the reverse MR from T1DM to six digestive cancers, no significant causal relationships were identified.

In this MR study with a large number of digestive cancer cases, we found no evidence to support the causal role of T1DM in the risk of oesophageal cancer, stomach cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, biliary tract cancer, or pancreatic cancer. However, we found a causal positive association between T1DM and colorectal cancer. Further large-scale prospective studies are necessary to replicate our findings.