Leukocyte telomere length, breast cancer risk in the offspring: the relations with father's age at birth.

Pubmed ID: 21354438

Pubmed Central ID: PMC3095687

Journal: Mechanisms of ageing and development

Publication Date: April 1, 2011

MeSH Terms: Humans, Male, Adult, Female, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cohort Studies, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Middle Aged, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk, Breast Neoplasms, Leukocytes, Telomere, Paternal Age

Grants: R01 AG027019, R01 AG027019-04, R01AG027019, R01 AG030612, R01AG030612, U01 AG023746, R01 AG020132, R01 AG020132-04, R01 AG021593, R01 AG021593-05, R01 AG030612-04, R01AG020132, R01AG021593, U01 HL056563-04, U01 HL056564-04, U01 HL056565-04, U01 HL056566-04, U01 HL056567, U01 HL056567-04, U01 HL056568-04, U01 HL056569-04, U01 HL067893-04, U01 HL067894, U01 HL067894-04, U01 HL067895-04, U01 HL067896-04, U01 HL067897, U01 HL067897-04, U01 HL067898, U01 HL067898-04, U01 HL067899, U01 HL067899-04, U01 HL067900-04, U01 HL067901, U01 HL067901-04, U01 HL067902, U01 HL067902-04, U01 HL56563, U01 HL56564, U01 HL56565, U01 HL56566, U01 HL56567, U01 HL56568, U01 HL56569, U01 HL67893, U01 HL67894, U01 HL67895, U01 HL67896, U01 HL67897, U01 HL67898, U01 HL67899, U01 HL67900, U01 HL67901, U01 HL67902, U01 HL067895, U01 HL067900, U01 HL067893, U01 HL067896

Authors: Yashin AI, Arbeev KG, Hunt SC, Kimura M, Aviv A

Cite As: Arbeev KG, Hunt SC, Kimura M, Aviv A, Yashin AI. Leukocyte telomere length, breast cancer risk in the offspring: the relations with father's age at birth. Mech Ageing Dev 2011 Apr;132(4):149-53. Epub 2011 Feb 25.

Studies:

Abstract

Recent studies have reported that leukocyte telomere length (LTL) is longer in offspring of older fathers. Longer telomeres might increase cancer risk. We examined the relation of father's age at the birth of the offspring (FAB) with LTL in the offspring in 2177 participants of the Family Heart Study and the probability of developing breast cancer in 1405 women from the Framingham Heart Study (offspring cohort). For each year of increase in FAB (adjusted for mother's age at birth), LTLs in the daughters and sons were longer by 19.4bp and 12.2bp, respectively (p<0.0001). Daughters of older fathers were less likely to stay free of breast cancer compared to daughters of younger fathers in empirical (p=0.014) and Cox regression analyses (p=0.0012) adjusted for relevant covariates. We conclude that older fathers endow their offspring with a longer LTL and their daughters with increased susceptibility to breast cancer. These independent observations cannot provide evidence for a causal relationship, mediated by telomere length, between FAB and increased breast cancer risk in daughters. However, with couples delaying having children in today's society, studies exploring the LTL association with increased breast cancer risk in daughters of older fathers might be timely and relevant.