A recent study of the region around the telomerase reverse transcriptase gene TERT, within which there are SNPs associated with a number of cancers including melanoma, reported multiple independent SNP associations with both telomere length and breast cancer risk.2 For these reasons, disease risk estimates based solely on the single reported SNP may not adequately reflect the contribution of the region to the heritability and aetiology of disease. Here, TERT is linked to melanoma.