Effect of genetic liability to migraine and its subtypes on breast cancer: a mendelian randomization study

BACKGROUND: The relationship between migraine and breast cancer risk has generated conflicting findings. We attempted to assess the association between migraine and breast cancer risk using Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis. METHODS: We selected genetic instruments associated with migraine from a recently published genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Inverse variant weighted (IVW) analysis was adopted as the main method, and we also performed the weighted-median method and the MR‒Egger, MR pleiotropy residual sum and outlier (MR-PRESSO), and MR Robust Adjusted Profile Score (MR-RAPS) methods as supplements. RESULTS: Our MR suggested that any migraine (AM) was a risk factor for overall breast cancer (IVW: odds ratio (OR) = 1.072, 95% confidence intervals (CI) = 1.035–1.110, P = 8.78 × 10(− 5), false discovery rate (FDR) = 7.36 × 10(− 4)) and estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer (IVW: OR = 1.066, 95% CI = 1.023–1.111, P = 0.0024; FDR = 0.0108) but not estrogen receptor-negative (ER-) breast cancer. In its subtype analysis, women with a history of migraine without aura (MO) had an increased risk of ER- breast cancer (IVW: OR = 1.089, 95% CI = 1.019–1.163, P = 0.0118, FDR = 0.0354), and MO was suggestively associated with the risk of overall breast cancer (FDR > 0.05 and IVW P < 0.05). No significant heterogeneity or horizontal pleiotropy was found in the sensitivity analysis. CONCLUSION: This study suggested that women with AM have an increased risk of overall breast cancer and ER + breast cancer. MO was suggestively associated with the risk of overall breast cancer and ER- breast cancer. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12885-023-11337-9.