To create the luciferase reporter gene construct containing the TERT promoter, the wide-type core promoter region of TERT, −288 to +61 from the ATG start site, was PCR-amplified from genomic DNA of normal human thyroid cell-derived HTORI-3 cells containing the wild-type TERT promoter. The PCR product was ligated into the pGL3-Basic luciferase vector (Promega, Madison, WI). The resulting plasmid was named p-TERT-WT. This luciferase reporter construct containing the wild-type TERT promoter was induced to contain TERT promoter mutation C228T or C250T by changing the corresponding C allele to T allele using the QuikChange Lightning Site-Directed Mutagenesis Kit (Stratagene). The resulting plasmids were named p-TERT-C228T and p-TERT-C250T, respectively.