Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41501586›Full record

ArticleDiscover oncology2026

Gallbladder disease and colorectal cancer: a two-sample bidirectional Mendelian randomization study.

Qiang Hu, Jing Sun

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Discover oncology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

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3 · Its place in the literature

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Qiang HuThe Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine School of Clinical Medicine, Zhejiang Chinese Medicine University, Hangzhou, China.
Jing SunDepartment of Vascular Surgery, Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital, 158 Shangtang Rd, Hangzhou, 310014, China. tdqhsci@126.com.

Funding

Project of Traditional Chinese Medicine (No.2024ZL345,GZY-ZJ-KJ-23051)Project of Zhejiang Provincial Department of Education Y202351378
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveTo assess whether a bidirectional causal relationship exists between gallbladder disease and colorectal cancer (CRC) using a two-sample, bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) approach based on genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary statistics.

methodsWe used European-ancestry data from the IEU OpenGWAS project within the UK Biobank. In the forward MR analysis, gallbladder disease was treated as the exposure and CRC as the outcome; in the reverse analysis, genetic liability to CRC was treated as the exposure and gallbladder disease as the outcome. The inverse variance weighted (IVW) method served as the primary analysis, supplemented by MR-Egger, weighted median, simple mode, and weighted mode methods. Instrument strength was evaluated using F statistics (F > 10 as the threshold for strong instruments). Sensitivity analyses included MR-Egger intercept tests for horizontal pleiotropy, Cochran's Q tests for heterogeneity, leave-one-out analyses, and visual inspection of funnel plots.

resultsIn the forward analysis, 19 independent SNPs significantly associated with gallbladder disease were included, all with F statistics > 10. IVW analysis showed no significant causal association between gallbladder disease and CRC risk (odds ratio 95% confidence interval including 1, P > 0.05), and the results from MR-Egger, weighted median, and mode-based methods were directionally consistent. Some heterogeneity was observed, but there was no evidence of substantial horizontal pleiotropy, and leave-one-out and funnel plot analyses supported the robustness of the findings. In the reverse analysis, 30 SNPs associated with CRC were retained, again all with F statistics > 10. IVW and complementary MR methods consistently indicated no significant causal effect of genetic liability to CRC on the risk of gallbladder disease (P > 0.05), with no notable heterogeneity or pleiotropy detected and broadly stable sensitivity analysis results.

conclusionThis two-sample, bidirectional MR study found no evidence for a causal relationship in either direction between gallbladder disease and CRC, suggesting that gallbladder disease and its genetic susceptibility are unlikely to be major genetic drivers of colorectal carcinogenesis. Individuals should not be classified as high-risk for CRC solely on the basis of gallbladder disease or cholecystectomy history, although coexisting metabolic risk factors still warrant comprehensive management and further study.

Indexed as

Causal associationColorectal cancerGallbladder diseaseMendelian randomization

Identifiers

PMID41501586
PMCPMC12873012

What Socratic holds

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.