In the analysis of the association between rs401681 and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) risks, all of the contrast models showed similar results except the CT vs. CC genetic model (OR = 0.93, 95 % CI = 0.84-1.02, P het = 0.568).
We found that the rs401681C/T allele in the TERT-CLPTM1L gene was associated with the risk of non-small cell lung cancer [NSCLC; P = 0.012, odds ratio (OR) = 1.29, 95% confidence interval (95%CI) = 1.09-1.50], but was not associated with the risk of small cell lung cancer (P = 0.571, OR = 1.15, 95%CI = 0.82-1.47).
The results from our replication study and the meta-analysis provided firm evidence that rs402710 T allele significantly contributed to decreased lung cancer risk, and the case-control study implied that the variant may yield stronger effect on NSCLC and never smokers.
We selected three single-nucleotide polymorphisms of TERT-CLPTM1L (rs2853669, rs2736108 and rs31490) and genotyped in 140 early stage NSCLC patients by TaqMan assay.