Positive telomerase activity in the majority of bile duct carcinoma

Abstract

Background. Studies of human tumors and human tumor cell lines indicate that telomerase activity may play a critical role in the tumor cell growth by sustaining cellular immortality. Telomerase activity has been detected in different percentages in various carcinomas, but the incidence of positive telomerase activity in bile duct carcinomas and surrounding normal bile duct tissues in its relation with malignancy grades of tumors, depth of invasion, lymphatic and vascular invasion, and lymph node metastases has not been studied.

Methods. Telomerase activity was assayed in surgically resected specimens of seven human bile duct carcinomas and seven adjacent nonneoplastic tissues using the PCR-based Oncor TRAP (a telomeric repeat amplification protocol)-eze telomerase detection kit. The correlation between the results of telomerase activity and clinicopathological data was examined.

Results. The telomerase activity was detected in six of seven (86%) bile duct carcinoma cases with only one negative case in our series, whereas no telomerase activity was detected in nonneoplastic adjacent bile duct tissues. Although the number of cases in our study was small, telomerase activity was regarded as independent of tumor grade, depth of invasion, lymphatic and intravascular invasion, or lymph node metastasis.

Conclusions. These results indicate that increased telomerase activity is a common phenomenon in the majority of bile duct carcinomas, and that it is negative in nonneoplastic bile duct tissues.