Smoky Coal Exposure, Telomere Length, and Lung Cancer Risk

Telomeres, the DNA-protein structures at the end of each chromosome, decrease in length with each cell replication. Telomere length is an indicator of genomic stability that may be associated with cancer risk. We used sputum samples from a population-based case-control study in Xuan Wei, China (122 cases; 122 controls), where lung cancer mortality is the highest in China and smoky coal is used for in-home heating and cooking, to test the hypothesis that short telomere length is associated with lung cancer risk. Using unconditional logistic regression, the shortest tertile of telomere length was associated with a non-significant increased risk of lung cancer (OR = 1.6; 95% CI = 0.8 – 3.2), when adjusted for age, gender, smoking status, and smoky coal use. Our results suggest that short telomere lengths may be associated with risk of lung cancer. However, larger sample sizes are needed to substantiate this finding.