Genetically predicted longer telomere length is associated with increased risk of B-cell lymphoma subtypes
Creators: name: Severson, Richard K.
name: De Roos, Anneclaire J.
name: Link, Brian K.
name: Novak, Anne J.
name: Ye, Yuanqing
name: Machiela, Mitchell J.
name: Rothman, Nathaniel
name: Haioun, Corinne
name: Berndt, Sonja I.
name: Cozen, Wendy
name: Smedby, Karin E.
name: Maynadie, Marc
name: Glenn, Martha
name: Hartge, Patricia
name: Purdue, Mark P.
name: Roman, Eve
name: Klein, Robert J.
name: Camp, Nicola J.
name: Wang, Sophia S.
name: Staines, Anthony
name: Clavel, Jacqueline
name: Tjønneland, Anne
name: Thompson, Carrie A.
name: Spinelli, John J.
name: Roos, Göran
name: Vineis, Paolo
name: Smith, Alex
name: Nieters, Alexandra
name: Virtamo, Jarmo
name: Giovannucci, Edward
name: Glimelius, Bengt
name: Witzig, Thomas E.
name: Slager, Susan L.
name: Zeleniuch-Jacquotte, Anne
name: Chung, Charles C.
name: Lan, Qing
name: Benavente, Yolanda
name: Cerhan, James R.
name: Yeager, Meredith
name: Holly, Elizabeth A.
name: Teras, Lauren R.
name: de Bakker, Paul I.W.
name: Conde, Lucia
name: Hjalgrim, Henrik
name: Southey, Melissa C.
name: Huang, Jinyan
name: Ma, Baoshan
name: Lightfoot, Tracy
name: Holford, Theodore R.
name: Angelucci, Emanuele
name: Giles, Graham G.
name: Ghesquières, Hervé
name: Vajdic, Claire M.
name: Chanock, Stephen J.
name: Wang, Zhaoming
name: Cox, David G.
name: Asmann, Yan W.
name: Cannon-Albright, Lisa
name: Salles, Gilles
name: Ryan Diver, 
name: Habermann, Thomas M.
name: Tilly, Hervé
name: Kaaks, Rudolph
name: Bracci, Paige M.
name: Lawrence, Charles
name: Kane, Eleanor
name: Vijai, Joseph
name: Foretova, Lenka
name: Offit, Kenneth
name: Fraumeni, Joseph F.
name: Smith, Martyn T.
name: Brooks-Wilson, Angela R.
name: Becker, Nikolaus
name: Zhang, Yawei
name: Vermeulen, Roel C.H.
name: Turner, Jenny
name: Kraft, Peter
name: Adami, Hans-Olov
name: Zhi, Degui
name: Weinstein, Stephanie
name: Ansell, Stephen M.
name: Gu, Jian
name: Chiu, Brian C.H.
name: Molina, Thierry J.
name: North, Kari E.
name: Liebow, Mark
name: Morton, Lindsay M.
name: Monnereau, Alain
name: Riboli, Elio
name: Jackson, Rebecca D.
name: Di Lollo, Simonetta
name: Tinker, Lesley F.
name: Bertrand, Kimberly A.
name: Zucca, Mariagrazia
name: De Vivo, Immaculata
name: Brennan, Paul
name: Albanes, Demetrius
name: Curtin, Karen
name: Boffetta, Paolo
name: McKay, James
name: Flowers, Christopher R.
name: de Sanjose, Silvia
name: Burdett, Laurie
name: Riby, Jacques
name: Boeing, Heiner
name: Weisenburger, Dennis D.
name: Wu, Xifeng
name: Skibola, Christine F.
name: Kelly, Rachel S.
name: Crouch, Simon
name: Zheng, Tongzhang
name: Hutchinson, Amy
name: Melbye, Mads
name: Park, Ju-Hyun
name: Rais, Marco
name: Zelenetz, Andrew
name: Dogan, Ahmet
name: Liang, Liming
name: Villano, Danylo J.
name: Birmann, Brenda M.
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2016

description: Evidence from a small number of studies suggests that longer telomere length measured in peripheral leukocytes is associated with an increased risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). However, these studies may be biased by reverse causation, confounded by unmeasured environmental exposures and might miss time points for which prospective telomere measurement would best reveal a relationship between telomere length and NHL risk. We performed an analysis of genetically inferred telomere length and NHL risk in a study of 10 102 NHL cases of the four most common B-cell histologic types and 9562 controls using a genetic risk score (GRS) comprising nine telomere length-associated single-nucleotide polymorphisms. This approach uses existing genotype data and estimates telomere length by weighing the number of telomere length-associated variant alleles an individual carries with the published change in kb of telomere length. The analysis of the telomere length GRS resulted in an association between longer telomere length and increased NHL risk [four B-cell histologic types combined; odds ratio (OR) = 1.49, 95% CI 1.22–1.82, P-value = 8.5 × 10−5]. Subtype-specific analyses indicated that chronic lymphocytic leukemia or small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL) was the principal NHL subtype contributing to this association (OR = 2.60, 95% CI 1.93–3.51, P-value = 4.0 × 10−10). Significant interactions were observed across strata of sex for CLL/SLL and marginal zone lymphoma subtypes as well as age for the follicular lymphoma subtype. Our results indicate that a genetic background that favors longer telomere length may increase NHL risk, particularly risk of CLL/SLL, and are consistent with earlier studies relating longer telomere length with increased NHL risk.