Mendelian Randomization Based on Big-Genome Association Analysis to Explore Causal Associations Between Rheumatoid Arthritis and Risk of Cervical Cancer

Objective To explore the causal relationship between rheumatoid arthritis （RA） and the risk of cervical cancer by Mendelian randomization （MR）. Methods Based on Genome Wide Association Study （GWAS） data, single nucleotide polymorphism （SNP） associated with RA were selected as genetic instrumental variables. Three Mendelian randomization methods,inverse variance weighted analysis （IVW）, weighted median methods and MR-Egger were used to investigate the causal association between RA and the risk of cervical cancer. The analysis results were shown by odds ratio （OR） and 95% confidence interval （CI）, and the effect was statistically significant with P<0.05. Results Eight SNPs related to RA were included. The result of IVW show that RA was a risk factor for the risk of cervical cancer （OR=1.14, 95%CI 1.10~1.18,P<0.001）. Weighted median method and MR-Egger provided the similar result. Sensitivity analysis found that no single SNP was strongly orreversely driving the overall effect for causal estimates. Conclusions RA was a risk factor of cervical cancer. Strengthening the screening and prevention of cervical cancer in RA patients was of great significance to reduce the incidence of cervical cancer in this population.