Abstract 3461: Shorter leukocyte telomere length and higher risk of primary liver cancer in a prospective cohort study
Authors: Karnam Sindhu , Demanelis Kathryn , Beckman Kenneth B. , Wang Renwei , Adams-Haduch Jennifer , Koh Woon-Puay , Yuan Jian-Min 
Published: March 2024

Background: Telomeres are conserved tandem repeats at chromosome ends that are vital to maintaining chromosomal stability and preventing degradation. Shorter telomere lengths (TL) are typically associated with older biological age or poor health status and can activate programmed cell death, whereas longer telomere lengths can be indicative of younger age or abnormal replication processes with oncogenic mutations. Previous research has identified a link between telomere length and carcinogenesis, but relatively few studies have investigated TL and primary liver cancer (PLC) risk despite it being one of the leading causes of cancer worldwide. The goal of this analysis was to study this association in a large prospective cohort.

Methods: Data was extracted from the Singapore Chinese Cohort Health Study, a cohort of 63,257 men and women aged 45-74 years at enrollment during 1993-1998. Telomere length was measured in peripheral leukocytes of 26,540 participants who provided baseline blood samples, using a validated quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) method. PLC incidence and death among cohort participants was annually surveilled using the nationwide Singapore Cancer Registry and the National Birth and Death Registry from study enrollment to 2015. For statistical analysis, a t test was performed to examine the differences in TL between participants who developed incident PLC and those who remained free of PLC. Cox proportional hazard method was used to estimate the hazard ratios (HRs) and their 95% confidence interval (CI) of PLC incidence according to TL quartiles.

Results: Over a 12-year follow-up, 199 participants developed incident PLC. The relative TL was significantly lower in participants with incident PLC than those without (-6.7%, p &lt; 0.001). Multivariate Cox regression model showed an inverse association between TL quartile and risk of PLC (p for trend = 0.009). Compared with the lowest quartile, HRs (95% CIs) of PLC for the 2nd, 3rd, and highest quartile of TL were 0.78 (0.54-1.12), 0.75 (0.51-1.11), and 0.57 (0.37-0.88), respectively, after adjustment for age, sex, alcohol use, body mass index, and smoking status.

Conclusion: The present analysis demonstrated a statistically significant association between shorter telomere length and increased risk of PLC in a large prospective cohort of Singaporean Chinese. This inverse association for PLC is different from those for other cancer types in the same cohort. These results warrant further studies such as using Mendelian randomization to quantify genetic variation in TL with PLC development.

Citation Format: Sindhu Karnam, Kathryn Demanelis, Kenneth B. Beckman, Renwei Wang, Jennifer Adams-Haduch, Woon-Puay Koh, Jian-Min Yuan. Shorter leukocyte telomere length and higher risk of primary liver cancer in a prospective cohort study [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 3461.