Inflammatory factors and nasopharyngeal carcinoma: A two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is an important health concern worldwide. Previous studies are susceptible to confounding factors. To solve this problem, this study uses Mendelian randomization (MR) to discover the causal relationship between inflammatory factors and NPC from a genetic perspective. A 2-sample MR analysis was performed using data from genome-wide association analysis studies of 41 inflammatory factors and NPC. The following methods were used to analyze the causal relationship between inflammatory factors and NPC: Inverse-Variance Weighted, MR-Egger, Weighted Median, Simple Mode and Weighted Median. MR Steiger test was used to determine the direction of the interaction between inflammatory factors and NPC. The robustness of the analysis was ensured by means of Cochran Q test, leave-one-out analysis and MR-Egger regression analysis. Reverse MR was performed to investigate whether there is reverse causality between inflammatory factors and NPC. There was a positive causal relationship between granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) levels and NPC (OR: 3.659, 95% CI: 1.398-9.581, P = .008), and there was no pleiotropy or reverse causality between the level of G-CSF and NPC. The sensitivity analysis showed that the results of the analyses did not contain heterogeneity, horizontal pleiotropy, or individual single nucleotide polymorphisms that significantly influenced the results of the analyses. G-CSF is a potential risk factor for NPC. The results of this study may provide new research ideas for identifying tumor markers and therapeutic targets for NPC.