Detection of telomerase activity in induced sputum in the diagnosis of primary lung cancer

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the clinical value of the detection of telomerase activity in induced sputum specimens from patients with lung cancer. METHODS: Both the regular sputum and induced sputum were collected in 48 patients with primay lung cancer and 26 patients with benign pulmonary diseases. Their telomerase activities were detected by TRAP-ELISA (telomeric repeat amplification protocol and enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay). RESULTS: In lung cancer group, the telomerase positive ratio in the induced sputum (75.0%) was significantly higher than that in the regular sputum (47.9%). The value of telomerase activity in the lung cancer group was higher than that in the benign group. The telomerase activity had no significant difference among different pathologic lung cancers. CONCLUSIONS: The detection of telomerase activity in induced sputum has a certain extent evaluation in the diagnosis of lung cancer.