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Updated: May 17, 2026

Telomere Length and Telomerase Activity; A Yin and Yang of Cell Senescence
Published on: May 22, 2013
Genetic variation in telomere maintenance genes in relation to ovarian cancer survival
Holly R Harris1, Immaculata De Vivo, Linda J Titus
1Obstetrics and Gynecology Epidemiology Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School Boston, Massachusetts, 02115, United States ; Division of Nutritional Epidemiology, National Institute for Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet Stockholm, 171 77, Sweden.
Abstract:
Telomeres are repetitive non-coding DNA sequences at the ends of chromosomes that provide protection against chromosomal instability. Telomere length and stability are influenced by proteins, including telomerase which is partially encoded by the TERT gene. Genetic variation in the TERT gene is associated with ovarian cancer risk, and predicts survival in lung cancer and glioma. We investigated whether genetic variation in five telomere maintenance genes was associated with survival among 1480 cases of invasive epithelial ovarian cancer in the population-based New England Case-Control Study. Cox proportional hazard models were used to calculate hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Overall we observed no significant associations between SNPs in telomere maintenance genes and mortality using a significance threshold of p=0.001. However, we observed some suggestive associations in subgroup analyses. Future studies with larger populations may further our understanding of what role telomeres play in ovarian cancer survival.
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