Antibody Responses to and Risk of Developing Colorectal Cancer in a European Cohort.

BACKGROUND

While () is the major cause of gastric cancer, it has also been suggested to be involved in colorectal cancer development. However, prospective studies addressing and colorectal cancer are sparse and inconclusive. We assessed the association of antibody responses to proteins with colorectal cancer in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort.

METHODS

We applied multiplex serology to measure antibody responses to 13 proteins in prediagnostic serum samples from 485 colorectal cancer cases and 485 matched controls nested within the EPIC study. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated using multivariable conditional logistic regression to estimate the association of overall and protein-specific seropositivity with odds of developing colorectal cancer.

RESULTS

Fifty-one percent of colorectal cancer cases were seropositive compared with 44% of controls, resulting in an OR of 1.36 (95% CI, 1.00-1.85). Among the 13 individual proteins, the association was driven mostly by seropositivity to cysteine-rich protein C (HcpC; OR: 1.66; 95% CI, 1.19-2.30) and Vacuolating cytotoxin A (VacA) (OR: 1.34; 95% CI, 0.99-1.82), the latter being nonstatistically significant only in the fully adjusted model.

CONCLUSIONS

In this prospective multicenter European study, antibody responses to proteins, specifically HcpC and VacA, were associated with an increased risk of developing colorectal cancer.

IMPACT

Biological mechanisms for a potential causal role of in colorectal carcinogenesis need to be elucidated, and subsequently whether eradication may decrease colorectal cancer incidence.