Telomere length and risk of glioma.

Background Telomere length in blood or buccal cell DNA has been associated with risk of various cancers. Glioma can be a highly malignant brain tumor and has few known risk factors. Genetic variants in or near RTEL1 and TERT, key components of telomere biology, are associated with glioma risk. Therefore, we evaluated the association between relative telomere length (RTL) and glioma in a prospective study.