Telomerase Activity and Correlation with Histological Malignancy and Prognosis in Brain Tumors

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Telomerase, a ribonucleoprotein adds telomeric sequences repeatedly to the ends of telomeres to compensate for the progressive loss. A favorable prognosis might be associated with low or no telomerase activity in some tumors. We present the correlation of the telomerase activity and the prognosis of patients with brain neoplasms. METHODS: Between March 1998 and December 1999, 62 patients with brain tumors underwent surgery and their surgical specimens were studied. Telomerase activity was investigated by telomeric repeats amplification protocol assay and the survival time was analyzed, retrospectively. The significance and the correlation of data were also assessed statistically. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in the expression of telomerase activity among histological types. However, a significant difference was noted in the expression of telomerase activity between high-grade gliomas and low-grade gliomas(p=0.022). The overall mean survival time of telomerase-positive and telomerase-negative groups in 11 dead patients were 11.4+/-6.6 months and 15.0+/-8.4 months respectively, and its difference was statistically significant(p=0.038). CONCLUSION: Our data suggests that telomerase may play a role in biological malignancy of the gliomas and also can be used as a prognostic indicator for the survival time of brain tumors.