Genetic Polymorphisms of the Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase Gene in Relation to Prostate Tumorigenesis, Aggressiveness and Mortality: A Cross-Ancestry Analysis

Background: Telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) has been consistently associated with prostate cancer (PCa) risk. However, few studies have explored the association between TERT variants and PCa aggressiveness. Methods: Individual and genetic data were obtained from UK Biobank and a Chinese PCa cohort (Chinese Consortium for Prostate Cancer Genetics). Results: A total of 209,694 Europeans (14,550 PCa cases/195,144 controls) and 8873 Chinese (4438 cases/4435 controls) were involved. Nineteen susceptibility loci with five novel ones (rs144704378, rs35311994, rs34194491, rs144020096, and rs7710703) were detected in Europeans, whereas seven loci with two novel ones (rs7710703 and rs11291391) were discovered in the Chinese cohort. The index SNP for the two ancestries was rs2242652 (odds ratio [OR] = 1.16, 95% confidence interval [CI]:1.12–1.20, p = 4.12 × 10−16) and rs11291391 (OR = 1.73, 95%CI:1.34–2.25, p = 3.04 × 10−5), respectively. SNPs rs2736100 (OR = 1.49, 95%CI:1.31–1.71, p = 2.91 × 10−9) and rs2853677 (OR = 1.74, 95%CI:1.52–1.98, p = 3.52 × 10−16) were found significantly associated with aggressive PCa, while rs35812074 was marginally related to PCa death (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.61, 95%CI:1.04–2.49, p = 0.034). Gene-based analysis showed a significant association of TERT with PCa (European: p = 3.66 × 10−15, Chinese: p = 0.043) and PCa severity (p = 0.006) but not with PCa death (p = 0.171). Conclusion: TERT polymorphisms were associated with prostate tumorigenesis and severity, and the genetic architectures of PCa susceptibility loci were heterogeneous among distinct ancestries.