[Clinical significance of human telomerase reverse transcriptase in patients with colon cancer]

Although telomerase activity can be detected in 70%-90% malignant tumor tissues, it is still a controversial prognostic factor of patients with malignant tumors. This study was to evaluate clinical significance of human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) in patients with colon cancer.

Expression of hTERT in 59 matched pairs of tumor and adjacent non-tumorous mucosa samples from patients with colon cancer who underwent complete resection were measured by quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).

Expression of hTERT in both tumor samples and nontumorous mucosa samples has no significant correlation with clinicopathologic factors. Of 32 patients with colon cancer of Dukes' A, and B stages, prognosis of 18 (56%) patients with hTERT expression of lower than 0.60 in tumor tissue was better than that of 27 (44%) patients with hTERT expression of higher than 0.60 (P=0.006), prognosis of 20 (62%) patients with the value of hTERT expression in tumor tissue subtracted from that in matched non-tumorous tissue below 0.50 was better than that of 12 (38%) patients with that value above 0.50 (P=0.035). In 27 patients with colon cancer of Dukes' C, and D stages, it was not practical to estimate the patients' prognosis with hTERT expression level in tumor tissue and the expression difference between tumor tissue and non-tumorous tissue.

hTERT expression may be a potential prognostic index for patients with colon cancer of Dukes' A, and B stages.