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Telomerase activity in human renal cell carcinoma
T Fujioka1, M Hasegawa, Y Suzuki
1Department of Urology, Iwate Medical University School of Medicine, Morioka, Japan.
Purpose:
Telomerase activity has been detected in a wide variety of human tumors. The present study evaluated telomerase activity in association with the acquisition of renal cell carcinoma (RCC).
Methods:
Telomerase activity was examined in 30 RCC and the adjacent normal kidney tissue, obtained as surgical specimens. The activity was assayed by polymerase chain reaction-based telomeric repeat amplification protocol assay.
Results:
Among the 30 RCC, 18 (60%) displayed telomerase activity, whereas none of the normal tissue samples exhibited it. Subdivision of the tumors according to telomerase activity did not reveal any obvious difference in distribution with regard to tumor size, stage, histocytological subtype, or DNA-ploidy. However, a statistically significant relationship was found between the frequency of telomerase-positive activity and both serum immunosuppressive acidic protein level in the patient and tumor grade (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in the recurrent-free survival and the disease-specific survival between patients with positive telomerase activity and patients with negative activity.
Conclusion:
The present results indicate that telomerase activity might be related to the progression of RCC and thus a marker of malignant potential.