ArticleCancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology2013
Telomere length varies by DNA extraction method: implications for epidemiologic research.
Article in Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 74 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
74 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 113 citations in OpenAlex.
- Telomere length and chronological age across the human lifespan: A systematic review and meta-analysis of 414 study samples including 743,019 individuals.Ageing research reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Telomere length analysis from minimally-invasively collected samples: Methods development and meta-analysis of the validity of different sampling techniques: American Journal of Human Biology.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2021Pooled it
- Genetic Variants Related to Longer Telomere Length are Associated with Increased Risk of Renal Cell Carcinoma.European urology · 2017Pooled it
- The Effects of a Remote-based Weight Loss Program on Adipocytokines, Metabolic Markers, and Telomere Length in Breast Cancer Survivors: the POWER-Remote Trial.Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research · 2020Trial
- Nested case-control study of telomere length and lung cancer risk among heavy smokers in the β-Carotene and Retinol Efficacy Trial.British journal of cancer · 2018Trial
- Best practices for using biological data in psychological research.Journal of mood and anxiety disorders · 2026Review
- TARPON-A Telomere Analysis and Research Pipeline Optimized for Nanopore.PLoS computational biology · 2026Article
- Assortative breeding experiment in a songbird suggests telomere length is determined during early life rather than at conception.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Predicting brain age for veterans with traumatic brain injuries and healthy controls: an exploratory analysis.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2025Article
- Improving Yields in Multi-analyte Extractions by Utilizing Post-homogenized Tissue Debris.The journal of histochemistry and cytochemistry : official journal of the Histochemistry Society · 2023Article
- Telomere Attrition in Chronic Kidney Diseases.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Association of Telomere Length with Colorectal Cancer Risk and Prognosis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Cancers · 2023Review
- Genetic, parental and lifestyle factors influence telomere length.Communications biology · 2022Article
- Association of circulating leukocyte telomere length with survival in patients with colorectal cancer.Journal of geriatric oncology · 2022Article
- Comparing qPCR and DNA methylation-based measurements of telomere length in a high-risk pediatric cohort.Aging · 2022Article
- Stress and telomere shortening: Insights from cellular mechanisms.Ageing research reviews · 2022Review
- ΩqPCR measures telomere length from single-cells in base pair units.Nucleic acids research · 2021Article
- Prevalence and potentially prognostic value of C-circles associated with alternative lengthening of telomeres in canine appendicular osteosarcoma.Veterinary and comparative oncology · 2021Article
- Coming up short: Comparing venous blood, dried blood spots & saliva samples for measuring telomere length in health equity research.PloS one · 2021Article
- Diagnostic performance of peripheral leukocyte telomere G-tail length for detecting breast cancer.Cancer science · 2020Article
14 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
19 authors at 9 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundBoth shorter and longer telomeres in peripheral blood leukocyte (PBL) DNA have been associated with cancer risk. However, associations remain inconsistent across studies of the same cancer type. This study compares DNA preparation methods to determine telomere length from patients with colorectal cancer.
methodsWe examined PBL relative telomere length (RTL) measured by quantitative PCR (qPCR) in 1,033 patients with colorectal cancer and 2,952 healthy controls. DNA was extracted with phenol/chloroform, PureGene, or QIAamp.
resultsWe observed differences in RTL depending on DNA extraction method (P < 0.001). Phenol/chloroform-extracted DNA had a mean RTL (T/S ratio) of 0.78 (range 0.01-6.54) compared with PureGene-extracted DNA (mean RTL of 0.75; range 0.00-12.33). DNA extracted by QIAamp yielded a mean RTL of 0.38 (range 0.02-3.69). We subsequently compared RTL measured by qPCR from an independent set of 20 colorectal cancer cases and 24 normal controls in PBL DNA extracted by each of the three extraction methods. The range of RTL measured by qPCR from QIAamp-extracted DNA (0.17-0.58) was less than from either PureGene or phenol/chloroform (ranges, 0.04-2.67 and 0.32-2.81, respectively).
conclusionsRTL measured by qPCR from QIAamp-extracted DNA was less than from either PureGene or phenol/chloroform (P < 0.001). IMPACT: Differences in DNA extraction method may contribute to the discrepancies between studies seeking to find an association between the risk of cancer or other diseases and RTL.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.