Effects of TERT gene polymorphism and environmental factor interactions on lung cancer risk in the Xi'an Han population

Background: Genetic polymorphisms of the telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) gene influence an individual susceptibility to lung cancer. We examined the relationship between TERT single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and lung cancer occurrence and determined if smoking or alcohol consumption affects this relationship in lung cancer patients. Methods: Ten SNPs and inferred TERT haplotypes associated with increased risk of lung cancer were evaluated in a Han Chinese population-based study including 228 lung cancer patients and 310 healthy control individuals. Relationships between the patients' genotypes and risk factors were investigated by estimating odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using unconditional logistic regression analysis. Results: Minor allelesrs2853672 and rs2736098 conferred significantly increased lung cancer risk in both allelic and genotypic association analyses (codominant, recessive, and log-additive models), while rs4246742 showed a protective effect against lung cancer in codominant and recessive models. Smoking increased the effect of rs2736098 on lung cancer risk, but the interaction between rs2736098 and smoking was only significant in the overdominant model (P=0.03). No evidence was found that alcohol consumption influenced or interacted with TERT polymorphism on lung cancer risk. Conclusions: Our results confirmed that TERT genetic polymorphisms contribute to lung cancer susceptibility in Chinese populations and of ten interact with smoking as a lung cancer risk factor. However, these associations should be further explored in larger and varying populations.