Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Clinical Trial
. 2021 Sep;34(5):946-954.
doi: 10.1111/pcmr.12971. Epub 2021 May 7.

Genetic predisposition to long telomeres is associated with increased mortality after melanoma: A study of 2101 melanoma patients from hospital clinics and the general population

Hafsa Ismail  1   2 , Jens Helby  1   3 , Lisbet R Hölmich  2   4 , Annette H Chakera  2   4 , Lars Bastholt  5 , Helle Klyver  6 , Pia Sjøgren  7 , Henrik Schmidt  8 , Liv Schöllhammer  4 , Børge G Nordestgaard  1   2   9 , Stig E Bojesen  1   2   9
Affiliations
Clinical Trial

Genetic predisposition to long telomeres is associated with increased mortality after melanoma: A study of 2101 melanoma patients from hospital clinics and the general population

Hafsa Ismail et al. Pigment Cell Melanoma Res. 2021 Sep.

Abstract

Whether there is an association between measured and genetically predicted telomere length and melanoma mortality is unclear. We tested the hypothesis that measured and genetically predicted telomere length is associated with mortality after a melanoma diagnosis. We followed 2,101 patients with melanoma from hospital clinics and the general population for risk of death for up to 26 years. All had telomere length measured in DNA from leukocytes, and 2052 of these were genotyped for the three single nucleotide polymorphisms rs7726159 (TERT), rs1317082 (TERC), and rs2487999 (OBFC1); all three genotypes are associated with telomere length and combined into an allele count from 0 to 6. For each telomere-lengthening allele, the hazard ratios (HRs) for mortality in the age-adjusted and multivariable-adjusted Cox analysis were 1.12 (95% confidence interval: 1.02-1.23) and 1.11 (1.01-1.23). However, for each standard deviation increase in measured telomere length, HR for mortality was 0.97 (0.88-1.08). In conclusion, in more than 2000 melanoma patients from hospital clinics and from the general population, genetically predicted long telomeres were associated with increased mortality, but measured leukocyte telomere length was not.

Keywords: biomarkers; melanoma; mortality; survival; telomere homeostasis.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Bandyopadhyay, D., Timchenko, N., Suwa, T., Hornsby, P. J., Campisi, J., & Medrano, E. E. (2001). The human melanocyte: a model system to study the complexity of cellular aging and transformation in non-fibroblastic cells. Experimental Gerontology, 36(8), 1265-1275. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0531-5565(01)00098-5
    1. Berk-Krauss, J., Stein, J. A., Weber, J., Polsky, D., & Geller, A. C. (2020). New systematic therapies and trends in cutaneous melanoma deaths among US whites, 1986-2016. American Journal of Public Health, 110(5), 731-733. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2020.305567
    1. Bjerregaard, B., & Larsen, O. B. (2011). The danish pathology register. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 39(7 Suppl), 72-74. https://doi.org/10.1177/1403494810393563
    1. Carvalho, L., Lipay, M., Belfort, F., Santos, I., Andrade, J., Haddad, A., Brunstein, F., & Ferreira, L. (2006). Telomerase activity in prognostic histopathologic features of melanoma. Journal of Plastic, Reconstructive & Aesthetic Surgery, 59(9), 961-968. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bjps.2006.01.022
    1. Cawthon, R. M. (2009). Telomere length measurement by a novel monochrome multiplex quantitative PCR method. Nucleic Acids Research, 37(3), e21. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkn1027

Publication types

Substances

LinkOut - more resources