Evaluation of Serum Human Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase as a Novel Marker for Cervical Cancer

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahendar Porika ◽  
Radhika Tippani ◽  
Anwar Mohammad ◽  
Sekhar R Bollam ◽  
Sree D Panuganti ◽  
...  

Human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) is the catalytic subunit of human telomerase and its rate-limiting component. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the diagnostic value of hTERT in serum of cervical cancer patients. Preoperative values of hTERT, squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCC-ag) and cancer antigen 125 (CA 125) were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in 192 patients with squamous cell carcinoma or adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix and 38 healthy controls. Elevated pretreatment levels of hTERT were identified in 80.2% of squamous cell carcinoma and 73.8% of adenocarcinoma patients. The expression of serum hTERT was correlated with telomerase activity in cancer tissues of both histological types. Pretreatment serum hTERT levels showed a significant correlation with clinical stage, tumor size and lymph node metastasis, but not with age. Serum hTERT measurement was found to be useful in the diagnosis and assessment of clinical stage of cervical cancer, and to be superior to the conventional tumor markers. Therefore, serum hTERT is a novel and readily available marker for cervical malignancies.

2012 ◽  
Vol 136 (11) ◽  
pp. 1359-1365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfred Wellenhofer ◽  
Hermann Brustmann

Context.—Human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT), an enzyme that enables cells to overcome replicative senescence and to divide indefinitely, is overexpressed in many cancers and their precursor lesions. Objective.—To test whether hTERT expression is related to neoplastic progression and resistance to apoptosis in vulvar epithelia. Design.—Immunoexpression of hTERT was evaluated in 101 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded archival vulvar epithelia consisting of normal squamous vulvar epithelia (n  =  25), lichen sclerosus (n  =  10), high-grade classic vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia (n  =  16), differentiated vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia (n  =  18), and vulvar invasive keratinizing squamous cell carcinoma (n  =  32) and related to survivin and p53 expression. Immunostaining for all factors was scored for moderate and strong intensities with regard to quantity to determine upregulation and overexpression (score 0, 0% immunoreactive cells; score 1+, <5% immunoreactive cells; score 2+, 5% to 50% immunoreactive cells; score 3+, >50% immunoreactive cells). Score 3+ was considered as overexpression. Results.—Nuclear hTERT immunoexpression was closely related to survivin reactivity, increased from normal vulvar squamous epithelia to lichen sclerosus and to high-grade classic vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia, differentiated vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia, and invasive keratinizing squamous cell carcinoma (P < .001), and followed the morphologic distribution of atypical squamous epithelial cells. Overexpression of hTERT was comparable to that seen for p53 in invasive keratinizing squamous cell carcinoma (P  =  .62); significant differences were calculated for differentiated vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia (P  =  .003) and high-grade classic vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia (P  =  .001). Conclusion.—Human telomerase reverse transcriptase is upregulated in vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia and invasive keratinizing squamous cell carcinoma compared with nonneoplastic squamous epithelia of the vulva as an apparently early and preinvasive event in the neoplastic transformation, with development of cellular longevity and resistance to apoptosis by survivin activation as associated features, independent of the etiology of vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia.


Author(s):  
Isnandar Isnandar ◽  
Harmas Yazid Yusuf ◽  
Bethy S. Hernowo

Oral cancer account for 30% of all malignant tumors in the head and neck, more than 90% of these cancers are squamous cell carcinoma. The p53 tumor suppressor gene known as "the guardian of the genome" has a major function in cell cycle control and act as a main defense against cancer, the occurrence of genomic instability causes inactivation and mutation of p53, which related to the progression of cancer cells and poor prognosis for patients. Human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT), a catalytic protein subunit of the complex telomerase enzyme, prevents telomere erosion during DNA replication, thus allowing cells to escape the aging cell step. The relationship between hTERT and malignant transformation is around 90%, the detection of hTERT is associated with malignancy that leads to a worse prognosis which increases immortality or continuous growth in cancer cells. This study was conducted with retrospective cross sectional using immunohistochemical p53 and hTERT smear in 30 paraffin blocks of squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity, held at the Anatomical Pathology Department of Hasan Sadikin Hospital Bandung. P53 and hTERT immunoexpression were correlated with histopathological grading of squamous cell carcinoma of oral cavity (SCC) and statistically analyzed with Rank Spearman correlation with significance of p<0.05 (95%) and Kendall Coefficient of Concordance with significance of p <0.05% (95%). The results showed a significant positive correlation between p53 immunoexpression with histopathological grading (rs=0.497, p-value = 0.005), between hTERT immunoexpression and histopathological grading (rs=0.441, p-value=0.015), and between p53 and immunoexpression hTERT with histopathological grading (W=0.568, p-value=3.99E-08) Conclusion: the higher p53 and/or hTERT immunoexpression, the higher or worse the level of histopathological grading of oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (poorly differentiated).


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nimita Kant ◽  
Perumal Senthiappan Jayaraj

Abstract Introduction Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is highly invasive malignant tumor showing keratinocytic differentiation and is often associated with chronic exposure to UV light. Telomerase is RNA dependent DNA polymerase that causes addition of telomeric repeat DNA sequences to chromosomal ends. Recently, UV signature mutations have been identified in core promoter region of TERT gene, which encodes the main catalytic subunit leading to overexpression in cutaneous melanoma. However, its role and expression pattern have not been studied in eyelid skin SCC. Objectives Present study aimed to analyze the presence of telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) in eyelid SCC, as its expression pattern and mutational status have not been studied in SCC. Materials and Methods Nineteen cases of eyelid SCC were evaluated for the presence of TERT protein using monoclonal antibody against TERT, and its mutational status was verified using PCR and DNA sequencing. Bioedit software was used for analyzes and primers were vindicated using NCBI Primer Blast. Results were correlated with clinicopathological features of SCC. Results A C to T mutation was observed in 6 of 19 SCC cases. Positive expression of TERT was found in 57% of the cases analyzed and it showed a significant association with keratinocytic differentiation (p = 0.04). Conclusion Relation between TERT promoter mutation and TERT immunohistochemistry is studied for the first time in eyelid skin SCC. Our results suggested that overexpression of TERT may contribute to the aggressive behavior associated with SCC and such patients may warrant aggressive treatment.


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