OBJECTIVEBy quantitative detection of telomerase expression, we investigated the relationship between telomerase expression and malignant behavior and prognosis in gastric carcinoma.

METHODSA real-time quantitative RT-PCR (RQ-PCR) was used to quantify the hTERT mRNA copy numbers in 89 samples of gastric carcinoma and corresponding non-cancerous tissues. The clinicopathological data of enrolled patients such as age, sex, tumor size, tumor site, pathologic type, histodifferentiation, infiltration depth, lymph node metastasis, stage and survival were obtained, and were made one factor analysis of variance and COX regression prognostic analysis with those above mentioned markers. Follow-up was completed as of February 28, 2010. The median follow-up was 24 months.

RESULTShTERT from gastric carcinomas and corresponding non-cancerous tissues was 16.98 ± 3.56 and 11.37 ± 2.15, respectively (P < 0.05), the telomerase activity in gastric cancer was significantly higher than that in non-cancerous tissue (P < 0.05). Telomerase activity showed a positive correlation with depth of invasion, tumor differentiation and nodal metastasis (P < 0.01), and negative correlation with survival.

CONCLUSIONSGastric cancer with high hTERT mRNA expression indicates a more malignant potential. Detection of hTERT mRNA in gastric cancer may be useful in a better understanding of invasion, metastasis, as well as prognosis of gastric cancer and provide a more efficient therapy. The quantitative expression of hTERT mRNA, infiltration depth and pTNM stage are significant afactors affecting the prognosis of patients with gastric carcinoma.