OBJECTIVETo quantitatively measure plasma level of human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) mRNA in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and explore its implications for NPC diagnosis and treatment.

METHODSWith 24 healthy volunteers serving as controls, the plasma level of hTERT mRNA was detected in 33 NPC patients by real-time PCR before and after treatments with chemotherapy or radiotherapy, and its association with the clinicopathological parameters of the patients were analyzed.

RESULTSThe NPC patients showed a significantly higher mean plasma level of hTERT mRNA than the healthy volunteers (10.75 ± 4.29 vs 0.95 ± 0.37, P<0.05). The plasma hTERT mRNA level in the NPC patients was significantly correlated with clinical staging, tumor size, and degree of nodal metastasis (P<0.05) but with gender or age (P>0.05). In patients with stage I and II NPC, the plasma hTERT mRNA level decreased significantly after radiotherapy (5.60 ± 2.33 vs 3.43 ± 1.42); in patients in advanced stages (III and IV), plasma hTERT mRNA level decreased significantly from 12.68 ± 3.08 to 10.68 ± 2.48 (P<0.05) after chemotherapy and to 3.13 ± 1.69 (P<0.05) after radiotherapy.

CONCLUSIONRadiotherapy and chemotherapy can effectively suppress elevated plasma hTERT mRNA levels in NPC patients. Plasma hTERT mRNA level is closely related to the clinicopathological factors and provides important information for early diagnosis and therapeutic effect evaluation of NPC.