Leukocyte Telomere Length In Relation To Risk Of Lung Adenocarcinoma Incidence: Findings From The Singapore Chinese Health Study

Telomeres are crucial in the maintenance of chromosome integrity and genomic stability. Critically short telomeres can trigger programed cell death while cells with longer telomeres may have increased likelihood of replicative errors, resulting in genetic mutations and chromosomal alterations, and ultimately promoting oncogenesis. Data on telomere length and lung cancer risk from large prospective cohort studies are spare. Relative telomere length in peripheral blood leukocytes was quantified using a validated monochrome multiplex quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) method in 26,540 participants of the Singapore Chinese Health Study. After a follow-up of 12 years, 654 participants developed lung cancer including 288 adenocarcinoma, 113 squamous cell carcinoma and 253 other/unknown histological type. The Cox proportional hazard regression was used to estimate hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). HR of lung adenocarcinoma for individuals in the highest comparing the lowest 20 percentile of telomere length was 2.84 (95% CI 1.94-4.14, p(trend)<0.0001). This positive association was present in never smokers (p(trend)<0.0001), ever smokers (p(trend)=0.0010), men (p(trend)=0.0003), women (p(trend)<0.0001), and in shorter (p(trend)=0.0002) and longer (p(trend)=0.0001) duration of follow-up. There was no association between telomere length and risk of squamous cell carcinoma or other histological type of lung cancer in all or subgroups of individuals. The agreement of results from this prospective cohort study with those of previous prospective studies and Mendelian randomization studies suggest a possible etiological role of telomere length in the development of lung adenocarcinoma.What's new? Telomeres are crucial in the maintenance of chromosome integrity and genomic stability, and sometimes oncogenesis. Data on telomere length and lung cancer risk from large prospective cohort studies however remain spare. This population-based prospective cohort study of 26,540 individuals with an average follow-up of 12 years found that longer telomeres in peripheral blood leukocytes were associated with significantly increased risk of developing lung adenocarcinoma, but not with squamous cell carcinoma or other histological types of cancer. Consistently with recent prospective and Mendelian randomization studies, these findings support a potential etiological role of telomere length in the development of lung adenocarcinoma.