RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Telomere Length and Risk of Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Nested Case–control Study in Taiwan Cancer Screening Program Cohort
JF Anticancer Research
JO Anticancer Res
FD International Institute of Anticancer Research
SP 637
OP 644
VO 37
IS 2
A1 HUI ZENG
A1 HUI-CHEN WU
A1 QIAO WANG
A1 HWAI-I YANG
A1 CHIEN-JEN CHEN
A1 REGINA M. SANTELLA
A1 JING SHEN
YR 2017
UL http://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/37/2/637.abstract
AB Background: Telomere length (TL) measured in peripheral blood leucocytes (PBL) might be a useful biomarker to identify elevated cancer risk. Patients and Methods: A case-control study which included 268 newly-diagnosed HCC cases and 536 matched controls, was conducted. Absolute TL in PBL was analyzed by quantitative real-time PCR. Results: The overall median length of TL was not statistically shorter in HCC cases compared to healthy controls. However, we found a significant synergistic effect of longer TL and HCV infection to increase HCC risk with a relative excess risk of 6.86 (95% CI: 2.14-11.58). Among HCC cases, significant shorter TLs were observed for <5 years (OR=3.93, 95% CI: 2.00-7.72); 5-10 years (OR=2.16, 95% CI: 1.10-4.24) compared to >10 years prior to diagnosis. Conclusion: Shorter PBL TL alone was not significantly associated with increased HCC risk. Among HCC cases, significant shorter TLs were observed for <5 years prior to diagnosis.