A functional tandem-repeats polymorphism in the downstream of TERTis associated with the risk of nasopharyngeal carcinoma in Chinese population

Table 4 Correlation between protein expression levels of telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) and MNS16A genotypes by immunohistochemistry

Tissues	Genotypes^a	Expression levels,^bn			P ^c
		Negative	Low	High	NPC vs. non-NPC	LLvs. SL+ SS
NPC^d tissues					4. 78 × 10^-7	0. 035
	LL	5	11	21
	SL	2	2	0
	SS	0	0	0
Non-cancer^e						NA^f
	LL	11	0	0
	SL	1	0	0
	SS	1	0	0

^a L allele, 302 or 333 bp; S allele, 243 or 272 bp.
^bExpression levels were classified into three groups (negative, low and high expression) based on the scores of the immunohistochemistry signals.
^cThe difference of the TERT protein level between the genotypes was assessed by a trend χ² test. The difference of the protein level between the tumors and non-cancerous nasopharyngeal tissues was assessed by a Wilcoxon signed-ranks test.
^dNasopharyngeal cancer
^eNon-cancerous nasopharyngeal tissues
^fNot available.

ISSN: 1741-7015