Telomerase activity in primary lung carcinoma and esophageal carcinoma

OBJECTIVE:To investigate the correlation between the expression of telomerase and the clinicopathological characteristics of common thoracic malignant tumors.METHODS: Dulmonary and esophageal carcinomas and corresponding tissues adjacent to carcinomas were obtained from 69 surgically treated cases,and benign tissues were used as controls.The PCR-based telomeric repeat amplification protocol was conducted for detection of telomerase activity in these samples.RESULTS: Telomerase activity was positive in 27 of 32 lung carcinomas tissues (84.4%),and only 3 of the 32 adjacent pericarcinous tissue samples (9.4%) but in none of the 7 specimens of the lung benign lesions,P0.05.Correlation with pathological parameters showed that the telomerase activity was associated with lymph nodes metastasis,P0.05. The telomerase activity was positive in 32 of 37 esophageal carcinous tissues (86.5%), in 7 of 37 tumor-adjacent tissues (18.9%) and of the none in normal esophageal epithelium,P0.05. Higher activity of telomerase was more frequently detected in infiltrating or metastatic late-stage tumors than in non-infiltrating or non-metastatic tumors,P0.05.CONCLUSIONS:Telomerase may be regarded as one of the diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in lung carcinoma and esophageal carcinoma, and may become a novel target for the treatment of these diseases. [