TELOMERASE ACTIVITY AS AN INDICATOR OF POTENTIALLY MALIGNANT ADRENAL-TUMORS

BACKGROUND, Telomerase is an enzyme that adds repeated telomere sequen ces to the ends of chromosome arms. It helps maintain both the length of telomere and infinite cell proliferation. In recent years, telomera se activity has been considered. BACKGROUND, Telomerase is an enzyme t hat adds repeated telomere sequences to an important characteristic th at differentiates between normal and cancerous cells. Because the auth ors often encountered difficulties in distinguishing between benign an d malignant adrenal tumors, they investigated whether the expression o f telomerase activity could distinguish potentially malignant adrenal tumors. METHODS. The authors examined telomerase activity in 48 sample s of adrenal tumor tissue and 27 samples of adjacent normal adrenal ti ssue. All samples were obtained from 48 patients who underwent surgery at Hamamatsu University Hospital in Hamamatsu, Japan. Based on the cl inical and postoperative pathologic examinations, 45 samples were diag nosed as benign and 3 were diagnosed as malignant. Telomerase activity was examined using a telomerase repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) assay. RESULTS, Of the 48 adrenal tumor samples, 7 (14.6%) had telomer ase activity. Ail adjacent normal adrenal tissues were negative for te lomerase activity. Of the telomerase positive samples, two were clinic ally known adrenocortical carcinoma, and another was metastatic adrena l tumor from lung carcinoma. Four other telomerase positive samples we re diagnosed as benign after clinical and initial pathologic examinati ons. However, two of the patients from whom these samples were taken d eveloped metastatic lesions after adrenalectomy. CONCLUSIONS. A telome rase assay of adrenal tumors may help predict their malignant potentia l. Cancer 1998;83:772-6. (C) 1998 American Cancer Society.