EBioMedicine: Hepatitis B infection has a causal relationship with extrahepatic tumors: a Mendelian randomization study

Background: Approximately 360 million people worldwide are chronically infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV
).

Objective: Here, we performed a two-sample magnetic resonance imaging using genetic variants closely related to chronic HBV infection as tool variables to study the causal relationship
between chronic HBV infection and extrahepatic tumors.

Methods: We conducted a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) study to study whether chronic HBV infection was causally associated
with extrahepatic tumors.

Results: Using the multivariate reverse variance weighting method, we found that the genetic predisposition to chronic HBV infection was causally related to extrahepatic cancers (including cervical cancer) (odds ratio [OR] = 1.

Table 1: Instrumental variables used in Mendelian randomization of chronic HBV infection in various site-specific cancers

Figure 1
.

Figure 2 uses a multivariate negative variance-weighted (MIVW) method to study the causal relationship
between chronic HBV infection and extrahepatic tumors in individuals of East Asian descent in Japan.

Conclusion: Our magnetic resonance analysis shows that chronic HBV infection is causally linked
to extrahepatic cancers, including cervical and gastric cancers.

Original source:

amiza AB, Fatumo S, Singini MG, et al.