Several age-related traits are associated with shorter telomeres, the structures that cap the end of linear chromosomes. A common polymorphism near the telomere maintenance gene TERT has been associated with several cancers, but relationships with other aging traits such as physical capability have not been reported. As part of the Healthy Ageing across the Life Course (HALCyon) collaborative r...

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified a number of genetic variants associated with risk of bladder cancer in populations of European descent. Here, we assessed association of two of these variants, rs11892031 (2q37.1 region) and rs401681 (5p15.33 region) in a Chinese case-control study, which included 367 bladder cancer cases and 420 controls. We found that the AC genotype of r...

A recent genome-wide association study of lung cancer among never-smoking females in Asia demonstrated that the rs2736100 polymorphism in the TERT-CLPTM1L locus on chromosome 5p15.33 was strongly and significantly associated with risk of adenocarcinoma of the lung. The telomerase gene TERT is a reverse transcriptase that is critical for telomere replication and stabilization by controlling telo...