Divella Rosa, Tommasi Stefania, Lacalamita Rosanna, Daniele Antonella, Abbate Ines, Garrisi Vito Michele, Savino Eufemia, Coviello Maria, Rubini Vincenza, Simone Giovanni, Paradiso Angelo, Quaranta Michele
Department of Experimental Oncology, IRCCS Istituto Tumori Giovanni Paolo II, Bari, 70126 Bari, Italy.
Anticancer Res. 2009 Jul;29(7):2845-9.
The objective of the study was to quantify the human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) gene in the circulating DNA of patients with primary breast cancer (BC) and to test its correlation with clinical parameters of the disease.
One hundred and twenty-one BC patients, 30 patients with fibroadenoma (NBC) and 50 healthy women were enrolled.
The level of hTERT in the plasma was significantly different in BC, NBC and controls (p<0.01), showing a sensitivity of 50% and specificity of 90% in the ability to detect malignancy. The circulating hTERT DNA was significantly different in the estrogen receptor (ER)(+)/progesterone receptor (PgR)(+) compared to the ER(-)/PgR(-) patients (p=0.03). Higher hTERT levels were associated with higher human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER)-2/Neu expression: score 0-1 vs. score 2+ (p=0.01) and vs. score 3+ (p=0.02). Finally, hTERT was significantly inversely correlated with the carbohydrate antigen (CA) 15.3 serum level (p=0.001).
Circulating hTERT DNA has a better diagnostic value than CA 15.3 in early breast cancer disease and could be a possible candidate as a tumor marker in patients with infiltrating ductal carcinoma positive to steroid hormonal receptor and with amplification of HER-2/Neu.
本研究的目的是对原发性乳腺癌（BC）患者循环DNA中的人端粒酶逆转录酶（hTERT）基因进行定量，并检测其与该疾病临床参数的相关性。
招募了121例BC患者、30例纤维腺瘤患者（非BC）和50名健康女性。
BC组、非BC组和对照组血浆中hTERT水平存在显著差异（p<0.01），在检测恶性肿瘤方面显示出50%的敏感性和90%的特异性。雌激素受体（ER）（+）/孕激素受体（PgR）（+）的患者与ER（-）/PgR（-）的患者相比，循环hTERT DNA存在显著差异（p=0.03）。hTERT水平越高，与人表皮生长因子受体（HER）-2/Neu表达越高相关：0-1分与2+分相比（p=0.01）以及与3+分相比（p=0.02）。最后，hTERT与糖类抗原（CA）15.3血清水平显著负相关（p=0.001）。
在早期乳腺癌疾病中，循环hTERT DNA比CA 15.3具有更好的诊断价值，并且可能成为激素受体阳性且HER-2/Neu扩增的浸润性导管癌患者的肿瘤标志物候选物。
