Lung Cancer Risk May Be Higher In People With Long Telomeres

By Dr Deepu

HealthDay (7/30, Preidt) reports that research published in Human Molecular Genetics suggests that individuals “with long telomeres are at increased risk for lung cancer but not other types of cancer.” Investigators “analyzed genetic data from more than 50,000 cancer patients and 60,000 people without cancer to learn more about the links between telomere length and the risk of five types of cancer: breast, lung, colon, ovarian and prostate.” While the researchers “found an association between long telomeres and increased risk of lung cancer,” they did not find any “significant association between telomere length and any of the other types of cancer.”