Investigating the effect of sexual behaviour on oropharyngeal cancer risk: a methodological assessment of Mendelian randomization

Table 1 Univariable Mendelian randomization results for age at first sex and number of sexual partners on risk of oropharyngeal cancer

Outcome	Exposure/ Outcome datasets	Outcome N	Controls N	Method	Age at first sex (N SNPs 139)		Number of sexual partners (N SNPs 117)
					OR (95%CI)	P	OR (95%CI)	P
OPC	UK Biobank/ GAME-ON	2641	6585	IVW	0.44 (0.28, 0.70)	< 0.001	2.20 (1.27, 3.81)	< 0.001
OPC	UK Biobank/ GAME-ON	2641	6585	Weighted median	0.41 (0.23, 0.75)	< 0.001	2.57 (1.24, 5.29)	0.01
OPC	UK Biobank/ GAME-ON	2641	6585	Weighted mode	0.23 (0.04, 1.34)	0.10	3.57 (0.58, 21.69)	0.17
OPC	UK Biobank/ GAME-ON	2641	6585	MR-Egger	0.21 (0.03, 1.37)	0.10	1.88 (0.12, 29.49)	0.65

Abbreviations: OPC, oropharyngeal cancer; IVW, inverse variance weighted; OR, odds ratio; CI, confidence intervals; P, p value; NSP, number of sexual partners; AFS, age at first sex. AFS OR represents the exponential change in odds of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma per SD change (7.3-month delay) in age at first sex. NSP OR represents the exponential change in odds of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma per SD increase (0.94) in the number of sexual partners

ISSN: 1741-7015