Association of newly identified genetic variant rs2853677 of TERT with non-small cell lung cancer and leukemia in population of Jammu and Kashmir, India

Gh. Rasool Bhat†,
Amrita Bhat†,
Sonali Verma,
Itty Sethi,
Ruchi Shah,
Varun Sharma,
Khursheed A. Dar,
Deepak Abrol,
Subiya Kaneez,
Sandeep Kaul,
Ramesh Ganju and
Rakesh KumarEmail author

†Contributed equally

BMC Cancer201919:493

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-019-5685-2

Received: 20 July 2018
Accepted: 8 May 2019
Published: 24 May 2019

Open Peer Review reports

Abstract

Background

Telomere genetics has recently been emerged as an important field in molecular oncology. Various genome-wide association studies in different population groups have revealed that polymorphisms in Telomere maintenance gene (TERT) gene located on 5p15.33 is associated with susceptibility to leukemia and lung cancer risk. However, association of TERTwith leukemia and lung cancer risk in north Indian population groups is still unknown. This study observed the association between genetic variant rs2853677 of TERT and leukemia and lung cancer in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, India.

Methods

A total of 781 subjects, out of which 381 cases (203 leukemic patients and 178 non-small cell lung cancer patients NSCLC) and 400 healthy controls were recruited for the study. Genetic variant rs2853677of TERT was detected using the real-time and Taqman Chemistry. Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium was assessed using the chi square test. The allele and genotype- specific risks were estimated as odds ratio with 95% confidence interval.

Results

We observed that variant rs2853677 was strongly associated with lung cancer and leukemia risk with an odds ratio (OR) =1.8 (1.03–3.2 at 95% CI); p value (adjusted) = 0.03; odds ratio (OR) =2.9 (1.4–5.5.at 95% CI); p value (adjusted) = 0.002, respectively.

Conclusion

The results of this study suggested that rs2853677 of TERT signifies association in multiple cancers and suggests that it can become potential marker for diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancer and leukemia. The study will provide an insight in understanding the genetic etiology and highlights the role of telomere-associated pathways in non-small cell lung cancer and leukemia. However, it would be quite interesting to explore the contribution of this variant in other cancers as well.