Telomere Length in Peripheral Blood Leukocytes Is Associated with Risk of Colorectal Cancer in Chinese Population

BACKGROUND: Human telomeres, tandem repeats of TTAGGG nucleotides at the ends of chromosomes, are essential for maintaining genomic integrity and stability. Results of previous epidemiologic studies about the association of telomere length with risk of colorectal cancer (CRC) have been conflicting. METHODS: A case-control study was conducted in a Han population in Wuhan, central China. The relative telomere length (RTL) was measured in peripheral blood leukocytes (PBLs) using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in 628 CRC cases and 1,256 age and sex frequency matched cancer-free controls. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated using unconditional logistic regression models to evaluate the association between RTL and CRC risk. RESULTS: Using median RTL in the controls as the cutoff, individuals with shorter RTL were associated with a significantly increased risk of CRC (adjusted OR = 1.27, 95%CI: 1.05–1.55). When participants were further categorized into 3 and 4 groups according to the tertile and quartile RTL values of controls, significant relationships were still observed between shorter RTL and increased CRC risk (OR per tertile = 1.13, 95%CI: 1.00–1.28, P (trend) = 0.045; OR per quartile = 1.12, 95%CI: 1.03–1.23, P (trend) = 0.012). In stratified analyses, significant association between shorter RTL and increased CRC risk was found in females, individuals younger than 60 years old, never smokers and never drinkers. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggested that short telomere length in PBLs was significantly associated with an increased risk of CRC in Chinese Han population. Further validation in large prospective studies and investigation of the biologic mechanisms are warranted.