[Telomerase: a new marker for cancer diagnosis]

Telomerase, a ribonucleoprotein reverse transcriptase, is expected to be a new marker for cancer diagnosis since it has been reported that high expression of telomerase activity was detected exclusively in germinal tissues and tumor tissues in human body, which is further evaluated by improvement of quantitative assay procedure for telomerase activity in tissue extract and by development of in situ detection method of telomerase protein component in tissue sections.