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Updated: May 13, 2026

Multiomics Analysis of TMEM200A as a Pan-Cancer Biomarker
Published on: September 15, 2023
The TERT MNS16A polymorphism contributes to cancer susceptibility: meta-analysis of the current studies
1Department of Neurosurgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, 300 Guangzhou Road, Nanjing, 210029, China.
Abstract:
The MNS16A polymorphism in the telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) gene has been implicated in cancer risk in multiple populations and various types of cancers; however, the results of previous studies exploring this association were inconclusive. To more precisely evaluate the relationship between the TERT MNS16A polymorphism and cancer risk, we performed a meta-analysis based on 8 studies described in 7 articles comprising 7864 controls and 4355 cases. The summary odds ratios (ORs) and their corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated to assess the strength of the association in a fixed-effects model or a random-effects model where appropriate. Heterogeneity among articles and their publication bias were also tested. Overall, the pooled results indicated that the MNS16A polymorphism was significantly associated with increased cancer risk in the homozygote comparison model (SS vs. LL: OR=1.280, 95% CI 1.060-1.547) and the recessive model (SS vs. LL+SL: OR=1.201, 95% CI 1.004-1.436). In the stratified analyses, a statistically significant association was observed among Caucasians and in population-based studies. We also performed the analyses by cancer type, and a significantly increased risk of glioma was found in four genetic models. Our results suggest that the TERT MNS16A polymorphism most likely contributes to an increased risk of cancer. Moreover, the same relationship was found when the studies were stratified by cancer type, ethnicity and source of controls.
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