Alves-Paiva RM, et al. – In this study, investigators used quantitative PCR to examine the DNA structures of 97 patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) and 262 healthy control participants in order to determine the relationship between leukocyte telomere length (LTL) in peripheral blood leukocytes and cancer risk. They found that the age-adjusted LTL was significantly shorter in HNC patients vs controls. An increased risk for HNC development was evident in participants with the shortest LTL. They investigators did not report any significant correlation between LTL and subjects' clinical characteristics and personal habits.