RESUMEN
<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>To investigate the diagnostic significance of detection of telomerase activity of bronchoalveolar lavage liquid (BALF) in primary lung cancer.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>BALF of 63 patients with lung cancer and 31 patients with non-cancerous pulmonary disease was collected, and telomerase activity was detected with silver-stained TRAP. Brush cytology and BALF cytology were carried out simultaneously.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The positive rate of telomerase was 76.2% (48/63) in lung cancer group, which was higher than 6.5% (2/31) in control group (Chi-square=40.6, P < 0.01). The positive rate was also higher than that of brush cytology (58.7%, 37/63) (Chi-square =3.6, P > 0.05), and higher than that of BALF cytology (14.3%, 9/63) (Chi-square=46.3, P < 0.01). In central type lung cancer group, the positive rate of telomerase was 71.4% (35/49), and higher than that of BALF cytology (12.2%, 6/49) (Chi-square= 35.3 , P < 0.01), but had no significant difference compared to that of brush cytology (61.2%, 30/49) (Chi-square=1.1, P > 0.05). In peripheral-type lung cancer group, the positive rate of telomerase in BALF was 92.9% (13/14), and higher than that of brush cytology (50.0%, 7/14) and that of BALF cytology (21.4%, 3/14).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The telomerase activity could be detected in the BALF of the primary lung cancer. Hence, detection of telomerase in the BALF of patients may be helpful to diagnose lung cancer.</p>