The detection of telomerase activity in patients with adenocarcinoma of the pancreas by fine needle aspiration

Telomerase activation in differentiated cells is associated with cell immor talization. Detection of telomerase expression in cancer provides a potenti al biomarker to be evaluated in the diagnosis and prognosis of cancer patie nts. Analysis of telomerase activity in biopsy specimens may serve as a use ful marker for the diagnosis of pancreatic adenocarcinoma. This study was c onducted to determine if telomerase could be detected in fine needle aspira tes from patients with pancreatic carcinoma. The telomeric repent amplifica tion protocol (TRAP) assay was used to determine telomerase activity from p ancreatic cancer cell lines, paired tumor/normal human pancreatic tissues a nd specimens obtained at the time of diagnostic fine-needle aspiration (FNA ) biopsies. In this report, we demonstrate that: i) telomerase activity is present in pathologically confirmed pancreatic cancer specimens, but absent in matched adjacent areas of normal pancreatic tissues; ii) telomerase act ivity is present in FNA samples obtained at the time of CT-guided FNA of pa ncreatic adenocarcinomas; and iii) this activity can be detected in materia l normally discarded during FNA slide preparation. Activation of telomerase can be identified in FNA specimens obtained at the time of routine cytolog ic diagnosis. These findings may be useful for further diagnostic or. thera peutic investigations of telomerase activity in pancreatic carcinoma.