Long telomeres and cancer risk among 95 568 individuals from the general population (original) (raw)

Background: Results regarding telomere length and cancer risk are conflicting. We tested the hypothesis that long telomeres are associated with increased risk of any cancer and specific cancer types in genetic and observational analyses. Methods: Individuals (N ¼ 95 568) from the Copenhagen City Heart Study and the Copenhagen General Population Study had the telomere length-associated genotypes rs7726159 (TERT), rs1317082 (TERC), and rs2487999 (OBFC1) determined, and 65 176 had telomere length measured. A total of 10 895 individuals had had a cancer diagnosis. Endpoints were any cancer and 25 specific cancer types. We conducted Cox regression analyses and logistic regression analyses. The three genotypes were combined as an allele sum. Results: Telomere length increased 67 base-pairs [95% confidence interval (CI) 61-74] per allele. In logistic regression models, the per-allele odds ratio (OR) for cancer was 1.05 (95%