Indian case-control study of 912 gallbladder cancer cases: one-unit rise in serum metal mixture index linked to odds ratio of 6.19
A case-control study published on November 14 in Scientific Reports investigated the association of serum trace elements with gallbladder cancer risk. The hospital-based study enrolled 912 gallbladder cancer cases and 1,140 visitor controls at Tata Memorial Hospital in India, measuring serum concentrations of non-essential elements (chromium, nickel, arsenic, cadmium, lead and uranium) and essential elements (manganese, copper and selenium). The paper's DOI is 10.1038/s41598-026-77322-x.
The study found strong non-linear associations for copper, manganese, cadmium and uranium. For the metal mixture, a one-unit increase in the weighted quantile sum (WQS) index was associated with increased gallbladder cancer risk, with an odds ratio of 6.19 (95 percent confidence interval 4.84 to 7.95). The highest weight was contributed by copper, at about 60 percent, followed by cadmium at about 26 percent and manganese at about 13 percent. In an internal validation dataset, the association remained significant, with an odds ratio of 2.71 (95 percent confidence interval 2.26 to 3.25).
Gallbladder cancer is a rare yet aggressive biliary tract malignancy with marked geographic variation in incidence, with particularly high rates reported across northern and eastern India and parts of north-eastern India.
Source: Scientific Reports
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图中是位于孟买的 Tata Memorial Hospital 的 Homi Bhabha 楼，该研究在此招募病例与对照。Reetesh Chaurasia, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
