Lung cancer is a major cause of cancer mortality worldwide, but the risk factors contributing to its development are not yet fully elucidated. Deepening the understanding of the risk factors and potential complications associated with lung cancer is of significant importance for the prevention and treatment of this disease. Traditional observational clinical studies and randomized controlled trials, due to the influence of various factors, render the process of causal inference more complex and may introduce biases into the results. Compared to the traditional methods, Mendelian randomization (MR) has attracted an increasing amount of attention in lung cancer research, due to its simplicity of operation and effective control of confounding factors and reverse causality biases. This paper employs bibliometric methods to analyze the published MR studies related to lung cancer, and further summarizes and discusses the content of these studies. The findings indicate that traditional risk factors, such as lifestyle habits, nutrition, obesity, socioeconomic factors, environmental pollution, and inflammatory biomarkers, have been substantiated within the context of MR studies. Additionally, MR studies support the existence of causal relationships between lung cancer and certain gut microbiota, medications, and other systemic diseases. Despite the inherent limitations of MR studies, they nonetheless hold significant value in enhancing our comprehension of the etiology of lung cancer and in identifying potential therapeutic interventions.
