The relationship of telomere length with cancer risk has been the source of much debate within epidemiological studies, which have produced inconsistent finding both between and within different cancer types. Over recent years, genome-wide association studies of increasing size have identified variants that determine human telomere length. These variants have subsequently been utilised as instrumental variables in Mendelian randomisation based studies, allowing the investigation of potential causal relationships between telomere length and cancer. Here we discuss recent advances in both genomic discovery, studies that give increasing evidence towards a causal role for telomere length in cancer risk and considerations for future studies.

中文翻译：

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端粒长度和癌症风险的遗传决定因素。

端粒长度与癌症风险之间的关系一直是流行病学研究中许多争论的源头，这些研究在不同类型的癌症之间和之内产生了不一致的发现。近年来，规模不断扩大的全基因组关联研究已经确定了决定人类端粒长度的变异体。这些变体随后被用作基于孟德尔随机化研究的工具变量，从而允许研究端粒长度与癌症之间的潜在因果关系。在这里，我们讨论了基因组发现中的最新进展，研究为端粒长度在癌症风险中起因果作用提供了越来越多的证据，并为以后的研究提供了考虑。