Nouso K, Urabe Y, Higashi T, Nakatsukasa H, Hino N, Ashida K, Kinugasa N, Yoshida K, Uematsu S, Tsuji T
First Department of Internal Medicine, Okayama University Medical School, Japan.
Cancer. 1996 Jul 15;78(2):232-36. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1097-0142(19960715)78:2<232::AID-CNCR7>3.0.CO;2-N.
Telomerase activation is thought to be essential for the immortality of cancer cells. We measured telomerase activity in human liver samples, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and evaluated this assay as a tool for the diagnosis of HCC using 21-gauge (21-G)-needle biopsy specimens.
Ninety-four liver samples (27 HCC, 27 liver cirrhosis, 37 chronic hepatitis, and 3 normal liver) that were surgically resected or biopsied with a 12-gauge Silverman needle and 13 HCC samples that were biopsied with a 21-G needle were analyzed for telomerase activation.
Eleven of 29 (38%) tumor-bearing liver samples were weakly telomerase-positive, whereas telomerase activity was observed infrequently in nontumor-bearing liver samples (6 of 35; 17%) and in normal liver samples (0 of 3; 0%). The positivity of surgical samples for well differentiated, moderately differentiated, and poorly differentiated HCC was 88% (7 of 8), 87% (13 of 15), and 0% (0 of 2), respectively. In telomerase-positive HCC, 43% (3 of 7) of well differentiated samples were weakly positive, whereas 92% (12 of 13) of moderately differentiated samples were strongly positive. The difference in the tumor sizes and viral marker status did not affect the activity. The telomerase activity of the 21-G-needle biopsied specimens showed no significant difference from that of the surgical samples. The positive incidence of 21-G specimens was 80% (8 of 10) and 100% (2 of 2) in well differentiated HCC and moderately differentiated HCC, respectively.
An incremental positivity of telomerase was observed during hepatocarcinogenesis. The use of this assay in 21-G-needle biopsy specimens may be useful in clinical examination.
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