Polymorphisms of the TERT-CLPTM1L Gene Are Associated with Pharynx-Larynx Cancer

Pharynx-larynx cancer is a complex malignant tumor with the sixth-highest morbidity and mortality rate worldwide. The telomerase reverse transcriptase TERT-CLPTM1L gene, located on chromosome 5p15.33, plays a key role in the occurrence and progression of various cancer. The purpose of this hospital-based case-control study of patients in northern China was to explore the association between two single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) rs401681 in TERT and rs2736100 in CLPTM1L and the risk of head and neck cancer. We collected samples and relative characteristics and then analyzed the relationship between SNPs and pharynx-larynx cancer susceptibility by logistic regression analysis. The results suggested that the male patients carrying CT and CT+CC genotype model of rs401681 was associated with reduced risk of pharynx-larynx cancer compared with the CC genotype (adjusted odds ratios were 0.701 and 0.704, and 95% confidence intervals were 0.495-0.992 and 0.506-0.980; p-values were 0.045 and 0.038, respectively). In addition, we found that subjects with allele-C showed a relatively low risk of pharyngeal cancer when smoking exposure history was obtained. But the limitation is that in the future we need to further investigate about the exact functional effect of these two variant genes and a larger scale sample. Overall, in this research, our results show that the TERT-CLPTM1L gene could be a meaningful biomarker for pharynx-larynx cancer susceptibility.