Year: 2017 | Month: June | Volume 6 | Issue 1
Expression of Telomerase in Breast Cancer and Its Correlation with Clinicopathological Parameters
Abstract:
Background: Telomerase is an enzymes which can be expressed in approximately 90% of carcinomas and in over 90% of breast cancer whereas in normal tissues it is not detectable. Recent studies have been proved that high telomerase expression is associated with poor prognosis of breast carcinoma.Objective: We investigated the telomerase activity by immune-histochemistry and its expression in tumor and non-tumor breast tissue and its clinco-pathological correlation with other established prognostic markers.Methods: Immuno-histochemistry (IHC) was used to detect the expression of human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) in the tissues of 20 cases of breast carcinoma and 20 cases of benign breast lesions and its correlation with other prognostic factors like ER, PR and her2-neu status.Results: Nuclear expression of telomerase by IHC was found in 7 out of 20 breast cancer patients (35%). None of the 20 benign breast tissue samples stained for telomerase. The variation of hTERT expression as per T stage, N stage, ER, PR and her2-neu status were not statistically significant in breast cancer. hTERT expression was comparable in patients with triple negative and non triple negative breast cancer.Conclusion: hTERT expression needs to be correlated with response to chemotherapy by further studies and may emerge as a useful tool in selecting most appropriate chemotherapy protocol for a given patients.
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