Chen Han-Jung, Cho Chung-Lung, Liang Cheng-Loong, Lu Kang, Lin Jui-Wei
Department of Neurosurgery, Chang Gung University and Medical Center at Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Republic of China.
J Surg Oncol. 2002 Oct;81(2):93-100; discussion 100. doi: 10.1002/jso.10139.
Some schwannomas in the central nervous system may demonstrate relatively aggressive behavior in pathological findings and clinical course. We evaluate the diagnostic values of telomerase activity and telomere length in the clinicopathological behavior of schwannomas.
Thirty surgical specimens from intracranial and intraspinal schwannomas were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for telomerase activity and terminal restriction fragments (TRFs) using Southern blot for telomere length. Proliferative indices were also studied.
Telomerase activity could not be detected in all schwannomas. Elongated telomere length (mean 17,101 +/- 259 bp) was found in four specimens (13.3%). Three of these four were found to have mitotic figures, high vascularity, cellularity, and pleomorphism in the pathological findings. The proliferative indices (35) showed correlative high values. One patient died of this disease, and one was found to have recurrence at follow-up evaluation. Those that displayed benign histopathological pictures showed relatively short telomere length (8,866 +/- 271 base pairs) and low proliferative indices (21). These is a significant difference between these two groups (P = 0.001).
Elongation of telomere length in schwannomas appears to predict aggressive clinicopathological behavior.
