This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a colleague Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Save to my personal folders Download to citation manager Rights & Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Gertler, R. Articles by Siewert, J.-R. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Gertler, R. Articles by Siewert, J.-R. Social Bookmarking                            What's this?

Telomere Length and Human Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase Expression As Markers for Progression and Prognosis of Colorectal Carcinoma

From the Chirurgische Klinik und Poliklinik, Institut für Pathologie und Pathologische Anatomie, and Institut für Medizinische Statistik und Epidemiologie, Klinikum rechts der Isar der Technischen Universität München, Munich, Germany.

Address reprint requests to Ralf Gertler, MD, Chirurgische Klinik und Poliklinik, Klinikum rechts der Isar der Technischen Universität München, Ismaninger Str 22, 81675 München, Germany; e-mail: gertler{at}nt1.chir.med.tu-muenchen.de

PURPOSE: Maintenance of telomeres through reactivation of telomerase is a prerequisite for tumors to preserve their ability to proliferate. The purpose of this study was to evaluate telomere length and human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) expression as markers for progression and prognosis of colorectal carcinoma.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Telomere length and hTERT expression were analyzed in matched cancer and adjacent noncancer mucosa samples from 57 patients with R0-resected colorectal carcinoma. The median follow-up time was 76 months.

RESULTS: Telomere length and hTERT expression correlated significantly in cancer tissues and adjacent mucosa samples (r = 0.52, P < .001; and r = 0.54, P < .001, respectively). Overall, cancer tissue had shorter telomeres than adjacent mucosa (P < .001). Only in noncancer tissue did telomere length decrease with age (r = 0.36; P < .01). Telomere length in cancer tissue was significantly correlated with tumor stage (P < .01), with longer telomeres in advanced tumors. Patients with ratios of telomere length in cancer to noncancer tissue greater than 0.90 had a significantly poorer overall survival compared with patients with smaller telomere length ratios (P < .002). In multivariate analysis, the telomere length ratio proved to be of independent prognostic value (P < .03).

CONCLUSION: Telomeres in colorectal carcinoma tissue were significantly shorter compared with adjacent normal mucosa as an indication for extensive cell proliferation. The correlation with tumor stage and patient survival suggest that hTERT-mediated telomere stabilization may be critical for progression and prognosis of colorectal carcinoma.

Authors' disclosures of potential conflicts of interest are found at the end of this article.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Facebook    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				R. Y.L. Zee, A. J. Castonguay, N. S. Barton, and J. E. Buring Mean Telomere Length and Risk of Incident Colorectal Carcinoma: A Prospective, Nested Case-Control Approach Cancer Epidemiol. Biomarkers Prev., August 1, 2009; 18(8): 2280 - 2282. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				L. Paul, M. Cattaneo, A. D'Angelo, F. Sampietro, I. Fermo, C. Razzari, G. Fontana, N. Eugene, P. F. Jacques, and J. Selhub Telomere Length in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells Is Associated with Folate Status in Men J. Nutr., July 1, 2009; 139(7): 1273 - 1278. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				U. Svenson, B. Ljungberg, and G. Roos Telomere Length in Peripheral Blood Predicts Survival in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma Cancer Res., April 1, 2009; 69(7): 2896 - 2901. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. H. Ghaffari, N. Shayan-Asl, A. H. Jamialahmadi, K. Alimoghaddam, and A. Ghavamzadeh Telomerase activity and telomere length in patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia: indicative of proliferative activity, disease progression, and overall survival Ann. Onc., November 1, 2008; 19(11): 1927 - 1934. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				G. Roos, A. Krober, P. Grabowski, D. Kienle, A. Buhler, H. Dohner, R. Rosenquist, and S. Stilgenbauer Short telomeres are associated with genetic complexity, high-risk genomic aberrations, and short survival in chronic lymphocytic leukemia Blood, February 15, 2008; 111(4): 2246 - 2252. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				U. Tabori, J. Ma, M. Carter, M. Zielenska, J. Rutka, E. Bouffet, U. Bartels, D. Malkin, and C. Hawkins Human Telomere Reverse Transcriptase Expression Predicts Progression and Survival in Pediatric Intracranial Ependymoma J. Clin. Oncol., April 1, 2006; 24(10): 1522 - 1528. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. O'Sullivan, R. A. Risques, M. T. Mandelson, L. Chen, T. A. Brentnall, M. P. Bronner, M. P. MacMillan, Z. Feng, J. R. Siebert, J. D. Potter, et al. Telomere length in the colon declines with age: a relation to colorectal cancer? Cancer Epidemiol. Biomarkers Prev., March 1, 2006; 15(3): 573 - 577. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]