Mitochondrial DNA copy number and cancer risks: A comprehensive Mendelian randomization analysis

Abstract Mitochondrial DNA plays a critical role in the pathophysiology of cancer. However, the associations between mitochondrial DNA copy number (mtDNA‐CN) and cancer risk are controversial. Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses were performed using three independent instrumental variables (IVs) to explore potential associations between mtDNA‐CN and 20 types of cancer. The three sets of IVs were primarily obtained from participants in the UK Biobank and the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology consortium using different methods. The outcome data of cancers were investigated using summary statistics from the FinnGen cohort. The potential causal associations were evaluated using the MR‐Egger regression, weighted median, inverse‐variance weighted (IVW), and weighted mode methods. The robustness of IVW estimates was validated using leave‐one‐out sensitivity analysis. Additionally, a meta‐analysis was conducted to pool results from three sets of IVs. The results revealed that genetically predicted mtDNA‐CN was not associated with cancer risk (odds ratio = 1.02; 95% confidence interval: 0.95–1.10). Subgroup analyses indicated no causal association between mtDNA‐CN and breast, lung, prostate, skin, colorectal, gastric, liver, cervical uteri, esophageal, thyroid, bladder, pancreas, kidney, corpus uteri, ovary, brain, larynx, and anus cancers. It was observed that mtDNA‐CN was associated with lip, oral cavity, and testis cancers. However, these results should be interpreted with caution because a small number of patients with lip and oral cavity or testis cancers were included. The comprehensive MR analysis demonstrated that mtDNA‐CN is not a suitable biomarker for tumor risk assessment.