Careful histological confirmation and microdissection reveal telomerase activity in otherwise telomerase-negative breast cancers.
Studies of invasive breast cancers consistently identify a subset of tumors without telomerase activity, compromising its utility as a tumor marker. Telomerase-negative tumors may represent a biologically different subset, or the result could be attributed to assay imperfections. To resolve this issue, we tested 105 invasive breast cancers for telomerase activity and found that 23 (22%) tumors were telomerase negative. Careful histological confirmation of an adjacent cryosection and/or microdissection of pure tumor cells reduced this number to 5 (5%). Thus, truly telomerase-negative invasive breast cancers are rare, making this enzyme a potentially very useful tumor marker in breast cancer.
Carey
L A
LA
Breast Cancer Research Program, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA.
Hedican
C A
CA
Henderson
G S
GS
Umbricht
C B
CB
Dome
J S
JS
Varon
D
D
Sukumar
S
S
D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000473:pathology; D004210:Dissection; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D019098:Telomerase / Q000378:metabolism*
D019098:Telomerase