Effect of operative surgery on telomerase activity in peripheral blood of patients with lung cancer

Objective:To detect the telomerase activity in peripheral blood of patients with lung cancer before and after operative surgery and discuss the influence of operation and its clinical significance.Methods:The peripheral blood was collected from 30 lung cancer patients.The telomerase activity of peripheral blood cancer cells was determined using enzymelinked immunosorbant assay based on the telomeric repeat amplification protocol (ELISA-TRAP) before operation and postoperative day 5 post surgery.All the patients were followed up for 36 months.The control group included 30 patients with non tumor disease.Results:The telomerase activity was negative in the peripheral blood of all the patients with non tumor diseases.For lung cancer patients the positive rate of telomerase activity before and after operation had no difference [60%(18/30) vs 50%(15/30),P0.05].The telomerase activity was increased in 6 lung cancer patients after operation,among them 4 out of 6 patients did not survive for 1 year.The telomerase activity was decreased in 15 lung cancer patients before and after operation(P0.01).It changed to negative in 6 out of 15 lung cancer patients.All the 15 patients survived for more than 1 year.Conclusion:Telomerase activity in the peripheral blood of lung cancer patients may have reference value for diagnosis,guide for therapeutics,and determination of prognosis.Operation could reduce the number of cancer cells in peripheral blood.