P04.40 Telomere maintenance and glioma predisposition - relevance of telomere genetic score and telomere length

Abstract Background Germline variants associated with predisposition for cancer are frequently located in genes involved in genome integrity. The telomeres at the chromosome ends are important in maintaining genomic stability, and germline variants in telomere regulating genes have been associated with both telomere length and glioma risk in repeated studies. In this case-control study, we investigated the association of measured leukocyte telomere length with genetically estimated telomere length risk score (TL-GRS) and the 27 currently identified glioma risk loci. Material and Methods Peripheral blood samples from 421 glioma patients and 671 age- and gender- matched controls were analyzed for relative leukocyte telomere length (rLTL) by qPCR. Genetic variants in telomere and glioma associated genes were genotyped by SNP-arrays, and TL-GRS was calculated. Associations between the genotypes of interest and rLTL were characterized by means of “multinomial logistic regression analysis” including covariates. Results Glioma patients had similar TL-GRS, but longer rLTL, than controls. Long rLTL was a risk factor for glioma in contrast to TL-GRS that was not. Among controls, a correlation between rLTL and TL-GRS was found, but this association was not seen among glioma cases. Notably, the correlation between rLTL and TL-GRS was stronger among men than women. Conclusion In this Swedish glioma case/control cohort, long rLTL was associated with increased risk of glioma but high TL-GRS was not. The association between rLTL and TL-GRS seen in controls was absent in glioma cases.