Association between intake of the n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (n-3 PUFA DHA) and reduced risk of ovarian cancer: A systematic Mendelian Randomization study

Abstract

Whether the intake of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), an n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid, is beneficial for ovarian cancer (OC) remains controversial and we hope to disentangle this puzzle using genetic data from large-scale populations in European and Asian. We employed, for the first time, a systematic Mendelian randomization (MR) design to comprehensively evaluate the causal effect of plasma DHA levels, an objective biomarker of DHA intake, on OC risk in European and then verified the extrapolation of the results in the Asian. Data in the analysis included genetic association data obtained from large-scale genome-wide association studies with 13,499 individuals for plasma DHA measurements and 66,450 individuals for OC in the European population, and 1361 individuals for plasma DHA measurements and 61,457 individuals for OC in the Asian population. The causal relationship between DHA and OC was estimated using the inverse-variance weighted approach, together with extensive validation and sensitivity analyses to verify the main results. In the European population, MR evidence suggested a causal relationship between higher plasma DHA levels and lower OC risk (OR, 0.89 for OC per one-SD increment in DHA; 95% CI, 0.83 to 0.96; P=0.003). Subgroup analysis by histological type of OC indicated that this observed association was stronger among endometrioid ovarian cancer (EOC) (OR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.69 to 0.96; P=0.014). A similar causal association of borderline significance was reached in the Asian replication set. The above results were consistently supported by a series of validation and sensitivity analyses. Our study provided robust genetic evidence for a protective association between plasma DHA levels and lower risk of OC, especially EOC, in the European population. These findings may inform prevention strategies and interventions directed towards DHA intake and OC.