Telomere length, cigarette smoking, and bladder cancer risk in men and women.

A182

Truncated telomeres are among the defining characteristics of most carcinomas. Given the role of telomeres in tumorigenesis, we reasoned that constitutionally short telomeres might be associated with an increased risk of bladder cancer. Using quantitative real-time PCR, we measured average telomere length in bladder cancer cases and healthy controls in two prospective cohort studies. Telomeres were significantly shorter in bladder cancer cases compared to controls. The mean telomere length in cases was 0.23 (standard deviation (SD), 0.16) versus 0.27 (SD, 0.15) in controls (p = 0.002). The adjusted odds ratio for bladder cancer was 1.88 (95% confidence interval; 1.05, 3.36) for individuals in the quartile with the shortest telomeres as compared with individuals in the quartile with the longest telomeres (ptrend = 0.006). We also observed significant associations between shorter telomere length and cigarette smoking and increasing age. These findings suggest that truncated telomeres are associated with an increased risk of bladder cancer.