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Telomere length as a risk factor for hereditary prostate cancer
Author(s) -
Hurwitz Lauren M.,
Heaphy Christopher M.,
Joshu Corinne E.,
Isaacs William B.,
Konishi Yuko,
De Marzo Angelo M.,
Isaacs Sally D.,
Wiley Kathy E.,
Platz Elizabeth A.,
Meeker Alan K.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the prostate
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.295
H-Index - 123
eISSN - 1097-0045
pISSN - 0270-4137
DOI - 10.1002/pros.22755
Subject(s) - prostate cancer , telomere , quartile , odds ratio , medicine , prostate , cancer , oncology , risk factor , logistic regression , biomarker , gynecology , biology , genetics , dna , confidence interval
BACKGROUND Telomeres are repetitive nucleotide sequences that stabilize the ends of chromosomes. Critically short telomeres are thought to contribute to cancer development by increasing chromosomal instability. We hypothesized that shorter leukocyte telomere length, a surrogate for inherited prostate cell telomere length, would be associated with increased risk of prostate cancer in hereditary prostate cancer (HPC) families. METHODS One hundred twelve affected and 63 unaffected men from 28 families were drawn from the Johns Hopkins HPC family database. Relative mean telomere length was measured in isolated peripheral leukocyte DNA by quantitative PCR. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate the association between quartile of age‐adjusted telomere length and prostate cancer. RESULTS Men in the shortest quartile of telomere length did not have increased odds of prostate cancer compared to men in the other three quartiles (OR = 0.84, 95% CI: 0.32–2.20, P = 0.73). However, when the analysis was restricted to affected men with blood drawn before or within a year of diagnosis (N = 39) and all unaffected men, shorter telomere length was moderately associated with increased odds of prostate cancer (OR = 3.55, 95% CI: 0.82–15.43, P = 0.09). CONCLUSIONS Though we found no association overall, shorter leukocyte telomere length may be associated with increased odds of prostate cancer when measured in pre‐diagnostic samples. Further prospective research is warranted exploring the utility of telomere length as a prostate cancer biomarker. Prostate 74:359–364, 2014 . © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.