Clinical usefulness of telomerase for the detection of colon cancer in ulcerative colitis patients

Abstract

For the detection of CRC arising in UC, telomerase and hTERT in colonic tissue showed high sensitivity, and telomerase in colonoscopic luminal washings revealed a high specificity. These might be candidate markers in clinical decision making for the diagnosis of CRC from UC.

Enhanced expression of proproliferative and antiapoptotic genes in ulcerative colitis-associated neoplasia

“…38,39 In this context, contradictory results have been found in patients with UC. [40][41][42] In our study, the level of hTERT mRNA was significantly increased in CRC samples and in human tumor xenografts but not in the samples of UC patients with and without neoplasia. Thus, our quantitative RT-PCR data, together with previous activity measurements, 40,41 indicate that upregulation of hTERT mRNA does not occur in the early stage of inflammation-dysplasia-carcinoma progression but seems to be associated with the late-stage development of CRC, as suggested by Kanamaru et al 39 Similarly, we can assume that prominent upregulation of the ILK expression occurs during the later stages of colon cancer progression, especially in malignant cell compartments endowed with high invasivity and metastatic potential.…”

A novel magnetic bead‐based assay with high sensitivity and selectivity for analysis of telomerase in exfoliated cells from patients with bladder and colon cancer

“…Whilst telomerase has previously been investigated as a biomarker for colon cancer in resected specimens [15,74], biopsy specimens and luminal washings [27,75] it has not, to our knowledge, been used previously to detect exfoliated colonocytes in faecal samples.…”

Clinical Significance of Telomerase Activity in Peritoneal Disseminated Cells: Gastrointestinal Cancers

“…In addition, the activity was significantly lower in these cells (30). Also, when telomerase activity was determined in luminal washes, 62% colorectal cancer patients were telomerase-positive, whereas none of normal or ulcerative colitis patients expressed it (23). Similarly, in pancreatic cancer patients, TA in the pancreatic juice was detected in 80% cases and none with chronic pancreatitis (31).…”

“…Thus, TA was detected in all esophageal cancers and up to 87% of the noncancerous tissues (25)(26). A recent study has shown that 97% of biopsy specimens from colorectal carcinoma, 67% of ulcerative colitis, and 27% of normal controls expressed telomerase activity (23). The second argument is that determination of the activity of the telomerase enzyme is prior to the determination of the expression of its different components, because even the expression of the rate-limiting hTERT subunit is necessary, but not sufficient for correct assembly of the functional telomerase ribonucleoprotein complex, which is regulated at multiple levels (19,27).…”

“…In a large number of studies, telomerase has been proven to have high diagnostic and prognostic value, and the highest combination of sensitivity and specificity for cancer compared with recent standard methods of cancer diagnosis, especially at early stages of cancer development (18). In particular, the upregulation of telomerase activity was demonstrated in all types of gastrointestinal cancers, and a large number of recent studies have demonstrated nearly 100% sensitivity for cancer (20)(21)(22)(23)(24). However, two major arguments should be considered when telomerase is applied to GI cancers.…”