Association between telomerase reverse transcriptase rs2736100 polymorphism and risk of glioma

Epidemiological studies have been conducted to investigate the association of telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) rs2736100 polymorphism with glioma risk. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the association of TERT rs2736100 polymorphism with glioma risk using a meta-analysis approach.

All eligible studies were identified through a search of PubMed, EMBASE, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Database of Chinese Scientific and Technical Periodicals, and China Biology Medical literature database before January 2014. The association between the TERT rs2736100 polymorphism and glioma risk was estimated by odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI).

A total of nine case-control studies including 9411 cases and 13,708 controls were eventually collected. Overall, we found that TERT rs2736100 polymorphism was significantly associated with the risk of glioma (OR = 1.29, 95% CI 1.24-1.34, P < 0.001). In the subgroup analysis based on ethnicity, the significant association was found in Caucasians (OR = 1.29, 95% CI 1.24-1.34, P < 0.001). In subgroup analyses by histology, the associations were significant in glioblastoma (OR = 1.45, 95% CI 1.32-1.60, P < 0.001), astrocytoma (OR = 1.41, 95% CI 1.26-1.58, P < 0.001), and oligodendroglioma (OR = 1.20, 95% CI 1.05-1.37, P = 0.008).

Taken together, these data suggested that TERT rs2736100 polymorphism may contribute to glioma susceptibility.