BACKGROUND: Previous studies have yielded inconsistent results concerning drug use and the risk of cancers. We conducted a large-scale cross-sectional study and a two-sample Mendelian randomisation (MR) study to reveal the causal effect between the use of 19 medications and the risk of four common cancers (breast, lung, colorectal, and prostate).
METHODS: We obtained information on medication use and cancer diagnosis from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey participants. After propensity score matching, we conducted survey-weighted multivariate logistic regression and restricted cubic spline analysis to assess the observed correlation between medication use and cancer while adjusting for multiple covariates. We also performed MR analysis to investigate causality based on summary data from genome-wide association studies on medication use and cancers. We performed sensitivity analyses, replication analysis, genetic correlation analysis, and reverse MR analysis to improve the reliability of MR findings.
RESULTS: We found that the use of agents acting on the renin-angiotensin system was associated with reduced risk of prostate cancer (odds ratio (OR) = 0.42; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.27-0.63, P
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