The correlation of TERT expression with c-myc expression in cervical cancer

Recently putative catalytic telomerase subunit was identified as telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT). Several reports showed that TERT expression correlated with telomerase activity. It has also been found that c-myc can induce telomerase activation through TERT expression. We examined expressio n of TERT and c-myc and their correlation in cervical cancers by reverse tr anscription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). It was found that TERT and c-myc expression was observed mostly in malignancies and expression of c-my c was concordant for positivity and negativity with TERT. These results sup port recent studies that c-myc expression is closely associated with TERT a nd telomerase activity. c-myc up-regulation may play an important role in a ctivation of TERT and telomerase. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. Al l rights reserved.