• 1. Office for Cancer Screening, National Cancer Center/National Clinical Research Center for Cancer/Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100021, P. R. China;
  • 2. College of Clinical Medicine, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100069, P. R. China;
  • 3. School of Public Health, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin 301617, P. R. China;
  • 4. Comprehensive Department of Medical Oncology, National Cancer Center/National Clinical Research Center for Cancer/Cancer Hospital. Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100021, P. R. China;
  • 5. Evidence-Based Medicine Center, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, P. R. China;
  • 6. Key Laboratory of Evidence-Based Medicine and Knowledge Translation of Gansu Province, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, P. R. China;
ZHAI Jingbo, Email: zhaijingbo@foxmail.com; LI Jiang, Email: lij@cicams.ac.cn
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How to accurately identify factors of cancer occurrence and to provide intervention early are the key issues that urgently needs to be addressed in cancer prevention and treatment. Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis uses genetic variants as instrument variables for exposures of interest, which compensates the shortcomings of traditional observational studies and clinical trials. This review introduced the current application status of MR analysis on cancer etiology and treatment researches in details, including assessment of cancer risk factors, exploration of cancer treatment targets, and evaluation of drug efficiency and adverse reactions. The scopes and dimensions of cancer etiology and treatment researches are greatly expanded because of various MR designs and abundant high-level omics data. As well, it provides a practical and feasible method for constructing cancer etiology networks and drug targeted databases, which are promising for supporting the development of precision cancer prevention and treatment.