Association of serum Klotho levels with cancer and cancer mortality: Evidence from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

Abstract Background Klotho has both anticancer and hormone‐like functions. But the research on Klotho and cancer is mainly based on animal experiments and small‐scale clinical research, thus we explored the association between serum Klotho and cancer and cancer mortality based on the National Health and Nutrition Survey (NHANES). Methods Participants were employed from the NHANES 2007–2016, excluding pregnant, chronic renal insufficiency, and incomplete data of cancer questionnaire and serum Klotho level. The association of serum Klotho with cancer and mortality was analyzed by weighted Logistic regression, weighted Cox regression and competitive risk model, respectively. Correlations between serum Klotho and testosterone and estradiol levels were analyzed by Spearman correlation and restricted cubic spline respectively. Results We found Klotho had an inverse effect with risk of pan‐cancer (all p  < 0.02), with each unit increase in Klotho (1ug/g creatinine) associated with a 0.9%–2.2% reduction in the risk of cancer, and higher levels showing a stronger negative association (all p ‐trend <= 0.0005). Whereas, we did not observe any association between serum Klotho level with all‐cause mortality and cancer‐specific mortality (all p  > 0.05). Then, stratified analysis found that people aged 60–79, female, overweight and non‐Hispanic whites or Mexican Americans were less likely to develop cancer. In addition, there was a strong nonlinear and linear positive correlation of Klotho with estradiol ( p ‐nonlinear = 0.0178) and testosterone only among male participants (β = −0.513, p  = 0.0137), respectively. Conclusions We found an inverse association between serum Klotho and cancer, but without cancer mortality. And this effect may be partially mediated by estradiol and testosterone. Further prospective studies are needed to prove these findings.