ArticleMedicine2026
Causal effects of plasma protein-protein ratios on lung cancer subtypes: A proteome-wide Mendelian randomization and mediation analysis.
Article in Medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide, with major subtypes including lung adenocarcinoma, lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC), and small cell lung cancer, yet the causal role of plasma protein-protein ratios in subtype-specific development remains poorly understood. We performed a bidirectional, two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to assess the causal effects of plasma protein-protein ratios on lung cancer. Genetic instruments for protein-protein ratios were derived from a large-scale proteomic genome-wide association study, and lung cancer summary statistics were obtained from the FinnGen and Transdisciplinary Research in Cancer of the Lung and International Lung Cancer Consortium databases. Our study identified 17 plasma protein-protein ratios associated with lung cancer across both databases, including 5 for overall lung cancer (LC), 4 for lung adenocarcinoma, 5 for LUSC, and 4 for small cell lung cancer. Notably, a higher melanoma inhibitory activity (MIA)/DAN family BMP antagonist ratio was associated with increased risk for both LC and LUSC. When analyzing the constituent proteins of these ratios individually, only the causal association between MIA and LC remained significant. Subsequent 2-step MR analysis revealed that the MIA/DAN family BMP antagonist ratio mediated the effect of body mass index on LUSC development, with consistent mediation proportions across both databases (13.46%, 95% confidence interval: 3.14%-23.77% in FinnGen; 9.26%, 95% confidence interval: 0.05%-18.47% in Transdisciplinary Research in Cancer of the Lung and International Lung Cancer Consortium). Additional exploratory mediation pathways were identified for smoking initiation and body mass index; however, these findings should be interpreted with caution, given the assumptions underlying 2-step MR and the exploratory nature of the analysis. Multiple sensitivity analyses confirmed the robustness of these findings. This MR study offers novel proteomic insights into lung cancer pathogenesis and identifies candidate protein-protein ratios that warrant further functional investigation to assess their therapeutic potential.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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 OpenQuestion graph.