[Telomerase activity in human head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and adjacent tissues]

To investigate the telomerase activity in human head and neck squamous cell carcinomas and their adjacent tissues and to explore its possibility of being tumor biological marker.

Thirty-two patient samples of primary head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and 15 adjacent tissues were assayed using TRA-PCR-ELISA for detection of telomerase activity.

Twenty-seven of 32 (84.4%) cancer samples and 5 of 15 (33.3%) adjacent samples were telomerase positive (P < 0.05, Chi-Square Test). The frequency of telomerase activation was lower in cancer without lymph node involvement (82.4%) than that with lymph node involvement(86.7%), but the difference has no statistical significance. Detection rate of telomerase activity in poor grading cancer (90%) is higher than that in moderate and high differentiation cancer (81.8%), although no statistical significance. No obvious correlation was found between the telomerase activity and the other clinical parameters such as primary site and staging.

The finding of telomerase activity in 84.4% of primary head and neck squamous cell carcinoma samples is consistent with the concept of telomerase playing a key role in tumorigenesis. Further study is needed to determine the usefulness of this enzyme as a new molecular marker.