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[Determination of telomerase activity in BALF cells from lung cancer patients].
L Chen, L Chen, N Wang
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Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the telomerase activity in BALF cells from patients with lung cancer. METHOD: The silver staining and PCR technique were used to detect the telomerase activity in BALF cells from 30 patients with lung cancer and 30 patients with chronic bronchitis or benign pulmonary diseases. RESULT: The telomerase activity in BALF cells was positive in all the patients with lung cancer (25/30, 83%), and in none of the patients with chronic bronchitis or benign pulmonary diseases (0/30, 0%). The difference was highly significant (P < 0.001). In the same patient with lung cancer, the positive rate of telomerase activity was 83% in BALF cells from the diseased lung, but only 27% in BALF cells from the normal lung (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The telomerase activity may be used as a diagnostic marker for lung cancer. There is a correlation between telomerase activity and the development of lung cancer.