Correlation study of malignant lymphoma and breast Cancer in different gender European populations: mendelian randomization analysis

BACKGROUND: Previous research has already indicated an elevated risk of breast cancer (BC) among survivors of malignant lymphoma, but the underlying reasons remain unknown. Our objective is to elucidate the causal relationship between malignant lymphoma and BC through Mendelian randomization (MR). Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) data from 181,125 Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) patients and 181,289 non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) patients from the FinnGen Consortium were utilized as exposure. We selected single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) strongly associated with the exposure as instrumental variables to investigate their relationship with BC in a cohort of 107,722 participants. Subsequently, we obtained data from the UK Biobank containing gender-stratified information on HL, NHL, and BC. We validated the findings from our analysis and explored the impact of gender. The Inverse-Variance Weighted (IVW) method served as the primary reference for the two-sample MR, accompanied by tests for heterogeneity and pleiotropy. RESULTS: The analysis results from the FinnGen consortium indicate that there is no causal relationship between HL and NHL with BC. HL (OR = 1.01, 95% CI = 0.98–1.04, p = 0.29), NHL (OR = 1.01, 95% CI = 0.96–1.05, p = 0.64). When utilizing GWAS data from the UK Biobank that includes different gender cohorts, the lack of association between HL, NHL, and BC remains consistent. HL (OR = 1.08, 95% CI = 0.74–1.56, p = 0.69), HL-Female (OR = 0.84, 95% CI = 0.59–1.19, p = 0.33), NHL (OR = 0.89, 95% CI = 0.66–1.19, p = 0.44), and NHL-Female (OR = 0.81, 95% CI = 0.58–1.11, p = 0.18). CONCLUSIONS: The two-sample MR analysis indicates that there is no significant causal relationship between malignant lymphoma (HL and NHL) and BC. The association between malignant lymphoma and breast cancer requires further in-depth research and exploration. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12863-023-01162-1.