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Pauleck S, Gigic B, Cawthon RM, Ose J, Peoples AR, Warby CA, Sinnott JA, Lin T, Boehm J, Schrotz-King P, Li CI, Shibata D, Siegel EM, Figueiredo JC, Toriola AT, Schneider M, Ulrich AB, Hoffmeister A, Ulrich CM, Hardikar S. Association of circulating leukocyte telomere length with survival in patients with colorectal cancer. J Geriatr Oncol 2022; 13:480-485. [PMID: 34998722 PMCID: PMC9197691 DOI: 10.1016/j.jgo.2021.12.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2021] [Revised: 10/31/2021] [Accepted: 12/07/2021] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Telomere shortening, as seen with aging, can cause chromosomal instability and promote cancer progression. We investigated the association between circulating telomere length and overall and disease-free survival in a sub-cohort of patients with colorectal cancer. METHODS Baseline genomic DNA from blood leukocytes was extracted from N = 92 newly diagnosed stage I-IV patients with colorectal cancer enrolled at the ColoCare Study site in Heidelberg, Germany. Detailed information on clinicodemographic (including age) and lifestyle risk factors, and clinical outcomes (including recurrence and survival) was collected. Telomere length was measured in DNA using multiplex quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Kaplan Meier survival curves were generated comparing shorter to longer telomere lengths with log-rank testing. RESULTS The mean T/S ratio for study patients was 0.5 (range: 0.3-0.9). Shorter telomeres were associated with older age at baseline. Patients with shorter telomeres experienced a worse overall and disease-free survival, although this association did not reach statistical significance. Kaplan-Meier survival curves for those with circulating telomere length below vs. above the median showed poorer overall (log-rank p = 0.31) and disease-free survival (long-rank p = 0.23). CONCLUSIONS Our results suggest that individuals with shorter telomeres, as seen with aging, may experience a worse overall and disease-free survival after colorectal cancer diagnosis. Larger sample sizes with longer follow-up are needed to further evaluate telomere length as a prognostic biomarker in colorectal cancer progression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Svenja Pauleck
- Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA; University of Leipzig Medical Center, Medical Faculty, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Biljana Gigic
- Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany; National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) and German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Richard M Cawthon
- Department of Human Genetics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Jennifer Ose
- Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Anita R Peoples
- Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Christy A Warby
- Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Jennifer A Sinnott
- Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Department of Pediatrics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Department of Statistics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Tengda Lin
- Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Juergen Boehm
- Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Petra Schrotz-King
- National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) and German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
| | | | - David Shibata
- University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN, USA
| | - Erin M Siegel
- H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, Tampa, FL, USA
| | | | - Adetunji T Toriola
- Department of Surgery, Division of Public Health Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Martin Schneider
- Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany; National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) and German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Alexis B Ulrich
- Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany; National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) and German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Albrecht Hoffmeister
- Medical Department II, Division of Gastroenterology, University of Leipzig Medical Center, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Cornelia M Ulrich
- Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Sheetal Hardikar
- Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA.
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Rotimi SO, Rotimi OA, Salhia B. A Review of Cancer Genetics and Genomics Studies in Africa. Front Oncol 2021; 10:606400. [PMID: 33659210 PMCID: PMC7917259 DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2020.606400] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2020] [Accepted: 12/14/2020] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally and is projected to overtake infectious disease as the leading cause of mortality in Africa within the next two decades. Cancer is a group of genomic diseases that presents with intra- and inter-population unique phenotypes, with Black populations having the burden of morbidity and mortality for most types. At large, the prevention and treatment of cancers have been propelled by the understanding of the genetic make-up of the disease of mostly non-African populations. By the same token, there is a wide knowledge gap in understanding the underlying genetic causes of, and genomic alterations associated with, cancer among black Africans. Accordingly, we performed a review of the literature to survey existing studies on cancer genetics/genomics and curated findings pertaining to publications across multiple cancer types conducted on African populations. We used PubMed MeSH terms to retrieve the relevant publications from 1990 to December 2019. The metadata of these publications were extracted using R text mining packages: RISmed and Pubmed.mineR. The data showed that only 0.329% of cancer publications globally were on Africa, and only 0.016% were on cancer genetics/genomics from Africa. Although the most prevalent cancers in Africa are cancers of the breast, cervix, uterus, and prostate, publications representing breast, colorectal, liver, and blood cancers were the most frequent in our review. The most frequently reported cancer genes were BRCA1, BRCA2, and TP53. Next, the genes reported in the reviewed publications’ abstracts were extracted and annotated into three gene ontology classes. Genes in the cellular component class were mostly associated with cell part and organelle part, while those in biological process and molecular function classes were mainly associated with cell process, biological regulation, and binding, and catalytic activity, respectively. Overall, this review highlights the paucity of research on cancer genomics on African populations, identified gaps, and discussed the need for concerted efforts to encourage more research on cancer genomics in Africa.
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Affiliation(s)
- Solomon O Rotimi
- Department of Translational Genomics, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States.,Department of Biochemistry, Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria
| | - Oluwakemi A Rotimi
- Department of Translational Genomics, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States.,Department of Biochemistry, Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria
| | - Bodour Salhia
- Department of Translational Genomics, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States.,Norris Comprehensive Cancer Centre, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States
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Fernández-Marcelo T, Sánchez-Pernaute A, Pascua I, De Juan C, Head J, Torres-García AJ, Iniesta P. Clinical Relevance of Telomere Status and Telomerase Activity in Colorectal Cancer. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0149626. [PMID: 26913901 PMCID: PMC4767779 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0149626] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2015] [Accepted: 02/03/2016] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
The role of telomeres and telomerase in colorectal cancer (CRC) is well established as the major driving force in generating chromosomal instability. However, their potential as prognostic markers remains unclear. We investigated the outcome implications of telomeres and telomerase in this tumour type. We considered telomere length (TL), ratio of telomere length in cancer to non-cancer tissue (T/N ratio), telomerase activity and TERT levels; their relation with clinical variables and their role as prognostic markers. We analyzed 132 CRCs and paired non-cancer tissues. Kaplan-Meier curves for disease-free survival were calculated for TL, T/N ratio, telomerase activity and TERT levels. Overall, tumours had shorter telomeres than non-tumour tissues (P < 0.001) and more than 80% of CRCs displayed telomerase activity. Telomere lengths of non-tumour tissues and CRCs were positively correlated (P < 0.001). Considering telomere status and clinical variables, the lowest degree of telomere shortening was shown by tumours located in the rectum (P = 0.021). Regarding prognosis studies, patients with tumours showing a mean TL < 6.35 Kb experienced a significantly better clinical evolution (P < 0.001) and none of them with the highest degree of tumour telomere shortening relapsed during the follow-up period (P = 0.043). The mean TL in CRCs emerged as an independent prognostic factor in the Cox analysis (P = 0.017). Telomerase-positive activity was identified as a marker that confers a trend toward a poor prognosis. In CRC, our results support the use of telomere status as an independent prognostic factor. Telomere status may contribute to explaining the different molecular identities of this tumour type.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tamara Fernández-Marcelo
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology II, Faculty of Pharmacy, Complutense University, 28040-Madrid, Spain
- Sanitary Research Institute of San Carlos Hospital (IdISSC), 28040-Madrid, Spain
| | - Andrés Sánchez-Pernaute
- Service of General Surgery and Digestive Tract, San Carlos Hospital, 28040-Madrid, Spain
- Sanitary Research Institute of San Carlos Hospital (IdISSC), 28040-Madrid, Spain
| | - Irene Pascua
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology II, Faculty of Pharmacy, Complutense University, 28040-Madrid, Spain
- Sanitary Research Institute of San Carlos Hospital (IdISSC), 28040-Madrid, Spain
| | - Carmen De Juan
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology II, Faculty of Pharmacy, Complutense University, 28040-Madrid, Spain
- Sanitary Research Institute of San Carlos Hospital (IdISSC), 28040-Madrid, Spain
| | - Jacqueline Head
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology II, Faculty of Pharmacy, Complutense University, 28040-Madrid, Spain
- Sanitary Research Institute of San Carlos Hospital (IdISSC), 28040-Madrid, Spain
| | - Antonio-José Torres-García
- Service of General Surgery and Digestive Tract, San Carlos Hospital, 28040-Madrid, Spain
- Sanitary Research Institute of San Carlos Hospital (IdISSC), 28040-Madrid, Spain
| | - Pilar Iniesta
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology II, Faculty of Pharmacy, Complutense University, 28040-Madrid, Spain
- Sanitary Research Institute of San Carlos Hospital (IdISSC), 28040-Madrid, Spain
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