TELOMERASE ACTIVITY AND ITS CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE IN GASTRIC-CANCER

In order to assess the role of telomerase in development of malignant gastric cancer, we measured the telomerase activity in gastric cancer tissues and normal tissues obtained from 95 patients by employing rece ntly developed sensitive PCR (polymerase chain reaction)-based telomer ase assay (telomeric repeat amplification protocol, TRAP). We also inv estigated how telomerase activity related to other clinicopathological findings including DNA ploidy and K-RAS gene point mutation. The telo merase activity was present in 85 of the 95 gastric cancer tissues, wh ereas we detected no telomerase activity in any normal tissue. The inc idence of telomerase activity in gastric cancer tissues was not correl ated to age, sex, tumour stage, histological grade, DNA ploidy or K-RA S mutation. Disease-free or overall survival of patients having tumour s with detectable telomerase activity was not significantly different from that of those without telomerase activity. These findings suggest that telomerase may play a key role in the establishment and progress ion of the gastric cancer and further studies will be needed to elucid ate the biological role of telomerase in gastric cancer. (C) 1997 Publ ished by Elsevier Science Ltd.