title: Serum human telomerase reverse transcriptase: a novel biomarker for breast cancer diagnosis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein complex composed mainly of a reverse transcriptase catalytic subunit, telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT). Expression of hTERT confers telomerase activity, indicating that hTERT is the rate-limiting component of human telomerase. The aim of the present study was to investigate the diagnostic implications of hTERT in the serum of breast cancer patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was conducted on 159 breast cancer patients and 41 healthy volunteers as controls. The evaluation of hTERT, cancer antigen 15.3 and carcinoembryonic antigen were performed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and analysed for their correlation with the patient's clinicopathological features.
  
  
  RESULTS
  27 of 52 (51.9%) patients with stage I breast cancer, 31 of 40 (77.5%) with stage II and 30 of 34 (88.2%) patients with stage III exhibited elevated hTERT levels. Serum hTERT levels showed significantly higher mean values in patients with breast cancer than healthy individuals. The sensitivity and specificity of hTERT in cancer diagnosis was 68.9 and 83.3%, respectively, which is significantly higher than conventional markers. The expression of serum hTERT was significantly correlated with telomerase activity in breast cancer tissues. Pretreatment serum hTERT levels showed a significant correlation with clinical stage, while correlation with nodal status and tumor size were marginal and no correlation was found with family history and age.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Serum hTERT is useful for diagnosing and assessing the clinical stage of breast cancer and is superior to conventional markers. Therefore, serum hTERT could have a potential application as a novel biomarker for breast cancer diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Kakatiya University, Warangal, 506 009 AP, India.
authors.forename: Mahendar
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Porika
authors.forename: Radhika
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tippani
authors.forename: Sekhar R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Bollam
authors.forename: Sree Divya
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Panuganti
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Thamidala
authors.forename: Sadanandam
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Abbagani
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D019098:Telomerase / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C509186:TERT protein, human; D019098:Telomerase