Increased risk of developing lung cancer in Asian patients carrying the TERT rs2736098 G>A polymorphism: evidence from 3,354 cases and 3,518 controls

Abstract

BackgroundThe association between telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) rs2736098 G>A and risk of lung cancer (LC) remains inconclusive. To explore the association more precisely, we performed a comprehensive search and conducted a meta-analysis on all eligible case–control studies involving 3,354 cases and 3,518 controls.MethodsThe 95% confidence interval (95% CI) and the pooled odds ratio (OR) were calculated using a random or fixed effect model. Publication bias, heterogeneity, and sensitivity analysis were also explored.ResultsAll studies were case–control studies on LC in patients of Asian descent, consisting of one Korean study and five Chinese studies. Overall, the variant A allele of TERT rs2736098 G>A was found to significantly increase the risk of LC in all genetic models (GA vs GG: OR =1.13, 95% CI =1.02–1.25, P=0.017; AA vs GG: OR =1.78, 95% CI =1.53–2.07, P<0.001; GA/AA vs GG: OR =1.25, 95% CI =1.14–1.38, P<0.001; AA vs GA/GG: OR =1.66, 95% CI =1.45–1.92, P<0.001). In the subgroup analysis, significant associations were found in Chinese group and hospital-based studies. Different genotype test methods showed no influence on the final results.ConclusionOur study identified that TERT rs2736098 G>A polymorphism significantly increased the risk of LC in Asian populations.

rs2736098, a synonymous polymorphism, is associated with carcinogenesis and cell count in multiple tissue types by regulating TERT expression

“…rs2736098 has been suggested to be significantly associated with carcinogenesis in multiple tissues besides breast, including lung, basal cell, bladder, prostate, cervix, liver, pancreas, colon, ovary, B cell, head and neck [ [29] , [30] , [31] , [32] , [33] , [34] , [35] , [36] , [37] , [38] , [39] , [40] , [41] ]. Further search in GWAS Catalog, UK BioBank ( https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk ) and FinnGen ( https://www.finngen.fi/fi ) indicate that rs2736098 is also significantly associated with count of platelet, red and white blood cell, neutrophil, basophil neutrophil and monocyte (all P < 5 × 10 −8 ; results not shown) [ [42] , [43] , [44] ].…”