Longer leukocyte telomere length predicts increased risk of hepatitis b virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma: A case-control analysis

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Convincing evidence has indicated that an alteration in telomere length is involved in tumorigenesis. In epidemiologic studies, a strong correlation also has been observed consistently between relative telomere length (RTL) in peripheral blood leukocytes (PBLs) and susceptibility of many cancers. However, whether leukocyte RTL can be used as a predictor of risk for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains to be determined. METHODS: The RTL in PBLs was determined by measuring the telomere repeat copy number to single-copy gene number ratio in each sample compared with a reference DNA sample using a polymerase chain reaction-based method in this case-control study. The study participants included 240 patients with HCC (cases), a group of 240 healthy individuals (controls), and 120 noncancer controls with chronic liver disease (CLD). RESULTS: HCC cases exhibited a significantly longer RTL (median, 0.57; range, 0.21-3.3) than CLD controls (median, 0.46; range, 0.15-1.99; P