Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA.
Cancer Causes Control. 2010 Jan;21(1):77-82. doi: 10.1007/s10552-009-9436-6. Epub 2009 Sep 27.
Telomeres are structures at chromosome ends that contribute to maintaining genomic integrity. Telomere shortening with repeated cell divisions may lead to genomic instability and carcinogenesis. Studies suggest that shorter telomeres in constitutional DNA are associated with bladder, breast, lung, and renal cancer. Ovarian cancer tissues also have shortened telomeres and increased telomerase activity, suggesting that telomere abnormalities may be related to ovarian cancer.
We investigated leukocyte telomere length in 99 women with serous ovarian adenocarcinoma and 100 age-matched cancer-free controls enrolled in a population-based case-control study.
Cases tended to have shorter telomeres than controls (P (wilcoxon) = 0.002). Compared to subjects with telomere lengths in the longest tertile, those in the middle and shortest tertiles showed respective age-adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) of 2.69 (1.23-5.88) and 3.39 (1.54-7.46) (P (trend) = 0.002). Strongest associations were found for subjects with poorly differentiated carcinomas (OR = 4.89, 95% CI 1.93-12.34).
This study shows that short leukocyte telomeres are associated with serous ovarian adenocarcinoma. These findings should be confirmed in large, prospective studies.
端粒是染色体末端的结构，有助于维持基因组的完整性。随着细胞分裂的反复进行，端粒缩短可能导致基因组不稳定和致癌作用。研究表明，固有 DNA 中较短的端粒与膀胱癌、乳腺癌、肺癌和肾癌有关。卵巢癌组织也存在端粒缩短和端粒酶活性增加的情况，这表明端粒异常可能与卵巢癌有关。
我们对 99 例浆液性卵巢腺癌患者和 100 例年龄匹配的无癌症对照者的白细胞端粒长度进行了调查，这些患者均参加了一项基于人群的病例对照研究。
与对照组相比，病例组的端粒往往较短（P（Wilcoxon）= 0.002）。与端粒长度处于最长三分位的受试者相比，处于中间和最短三分位的受试者的年龄调整比值比（95%置信区间）分别为 2.69（1.23-5.88）和 3.39（1.54-7.46）（P（趋势）= 0.002）。在分化不良的癌患者中发现了最强的关联（OR = 4.89，95%CI 1.93-12.34）。
本研究表明，白细胞端粒较短与浆液性卵巢腺癌有关。这些发现应在大型前瞻性研究中得到证实。
